Chapter 5 - Reversed Psychology

Once everyone had their fill of baby kisses, Charlie reached out to pull James aside, smiling easily but hungrily. "You said you had another pendant?" she asked, always happy to see more iterations of the thing that she and James had dreamed up together, the thing that had prompted her to meet Charles Xavier himself.

"Yeah, downstairs, on the bench," James said, nodding. "If you want to look at it …"

"Of course I do," Charlie said, shaking her head at him as she carefully handed Maria to Sying so that Ariel could stare down at the sleeping baby in proper awe. "It's practically my baby, right?"

"Sure." James waited at the door for her before he fell into step with her. "Finer controls — easier to direct, and it should complement your secondary better."

Charlie was already nodding along, her broad smile obvious to anyone who might have seen the two of them talking. "I was hoping to be able to share the emotion without physical contact. You know, for crowd control?"

"Yeah, that's what I've been working on," James agreed. "Broadcasting. But … that's the one I'm still developing. I've got another one that has a second piece you can put on others. Thought it might be useful in your practice. Put the switch one way and you can project to someone; flip it the other way and you can let someone else feel exactly what the other person's experiencing. Kind of a … funnel, I guess would be one way to put it. Helpful in family situations, I hope."

"Yeah, I think Cody could still use this every once in a while," Charlie admitted. "Apparently, Steve got a solid shiner the last time Cody got hurt badly enough that he woke up in medical," she added, this time with a small smirk. "It's the antiseptic smell. Scents are the strongest memory triggers, I'm sure you know."

"Yeah, I got the memo on that one," James agreed, rolling his eyes at the Summers tendency to explain things needlessly. "And I'm sure he won't argue with you if you tell him to work on it more."

"I don't know; the look on his face when he told me he gave Captain America a black eye was pretty amazing," she laughed.

"Equal parts proud and mortified," Gerry put in with a smirk as he caught up to them, excited to see Charlie in her element. He knew how much Amy meant to her.

"Probably only mildly better than finding out you took a solid shot at killing Iron Man," James said. When they got to his workshop, he gestured broadly toward the bench, where the pendant was laid out and ready for use.

"Zoe has been teasing him about it nonstop, of course," Charlie laughed as she slipped the pendant on and admired it.

"Decided to do something bigger than a necklace?" Gerry asked, gesturing to the portal prototype while Charlie examined the pendant.

"That's not yours," James said when he looked up at him.

"I wasn't saying it was," Gerry said.

"Just clarifying," James said. "But … don't touch it. It doesn't have power to it yet, but it's kind of a big … thing."

"Got it," Gerry said with a little smirk and a nod as he draped his arm around Charlie's shoulders — though as soon as he did, he got hit with a wave of what felt like a dozen different sharp emotions. There was amusement, but with a harsh undercurrent of jealousy and depression and a sort of tired resignation that just didn't seem like it could have come from Charlie until he took a step back and started to feel a little more like himself with the distance, blinking hard as he tried to get his breath back. "What…"

James watched him for a moment, then kicked himself away from the bench. "I … think the switch might be reversed," James said, though his tone spoke volumes — specifically that he knew that to begin with. "Oops."

Gerry was staring at Charlie, who looked suddenly much more interested in the ground as she tried not to meet his gaze and handed the pendant to James so he could show her where it was reversed before she switched it back on.

"I guess I didn't flip it back when I gave it to you," James said.

"Uh-huh," Charlie said in a tone that said she clearly didn't believe him, her gaze on Gerry as he watched her and looked progressively more apologetic and, at the same time, smug, somehow.

Gerry glanced over at James before he simply stepped forward and pulled Charlie toward the door. "Thanks for giving my wife her jewelry fix," he called to James over his shoulder before they hit the hallway.

"Anytime," James called out, half smirking to himself, since he was sure that Charlie was about to give him the same lecture Sadie had attempted. And she had much more important things she had to deal with.

Gerry only just waited until they were reasonably out of anyone else's range of hearing before he turned Charlie at the shoulders and dropped his head to catch her gaze. "Lottie, why didn't you tell me you wanted … I didn't know you were that …"

Charlie shifted under his gaze and then tried to give him a soft, warm smile to put him off the case, though when that didn't work, she let her shoulders drop. "Well, you said you wanted to wait until you were done with school," she said quietly. "And I didn't want to end up like Chance, you know?"

Gerry sighed, though he knew that was a legitimate fear, considering how obviously Chance and Elin had fallen apart when Chance had gotten baby fever. "Yeah, but you haven't even brought it up."

"I wanted us to be on the same page."

"I'm willing to revisit if it's going to kill you waiting!" Gerry said, shaking his head at her. "Come on, Lottie. You know me. I'm flexible when it comes to plans. I'm not so stuck in a plan that I can't change my mind." He leaned forward with a smirk. "That's a you thing, Charlie Summers."

Charlie let out a sound of disbelief and then hit him in the shoulder. "You're just—"

"So right?" Gerry said with a crooked grin. "Why yes, yes I am," he said before he simply picked her up and started to walk off with her. "Come on, Lottie. You want kids? I say let's get the ball rolling."

Charlie was once again in an excellent mood, though she wasn't making a big production out of it. For one thing, she had been raised by Annie Hale, so she didn't think it was proper for other people to know things about her sex life and plans for kids. Well, they could know about the plans for kids, but she wasn't going to advertise every time she and Gerry "worked" on making that plan come to fruition.

But she also wanted to keep her plans to herself because she knew that was still a tender topic for Chance and Elin, and she didn't want to make things any harder for them. She knew that the two of them were going to a marriage counselor, and that was good, but considering how badly she had heard both of them hurting for so long, she didn't want to do anything to pour salt into an open wound.

Besides, she didn't mind having her own private reason to smile to herself, something that wasn't about other people's happiness. She could too easily get overwhelmed or get lost if she relied on other people to provide all of the good feelings in her life.

Still, she found herself watching Chance and Elin more closely, not just because she wanted her twin brother to be okay but because, selfishly, she was waiting for the right time to tell Chance that she and Gerry were going to try to give them a cousin for their twins — sometime when telling Chance wouldn't send him into a guilt spiral.

And they were doing better. They really were. Ever since K had talked to the two of them and ever since Elin had started training to get back on the team, the intensity of their emotional songs had lessened.

But that didn't mean that depression had gone away for either of them. Chance still felt guilty, and Elin still felt useless.

And Charlie… Charlie had the beginnings of a plan forming.

She waited until she could tell that Chance and Elin were having a good day — which meant that she had to catch them after they'd had a good spar or training session with the team, and she had to catch them when they'd gotten enough sleep. Even though the twins were getting older, they weren't sleeping through the night consistently. And sleep deprivation wasn't at all helpful to dealing with any emotions, let alone big ones.

And then, wearing her pendant and a smile, she sat down beside Chance as he and Elin were watching the twins play with some toys in a playpen. They were both in good moods and were holding hands, with Elin's head on Chance's shoulder.

Which was the perfect opportunity to strike, especially since they were touching each other.

Charlie knew that she hadn't managed to sneak up on Elin, but when Elin shifted to see who was coming and saw Charlie, more than likely, Elin assumed Charlie was there to play with the babies. And so, Elin didn't try to stop her and didn't say anything until Charlie had gotten directly behind Chance and had slipped the pendant over his neck.

First, Chance was hit with everything Elin was feeling. Even in a good mood, even relaxed and curled up with her husband, Elin was carrying around an undercurrent of her depression, anxiety, and the crushing feeling of leaving herself behind to care for the kids - and Chance. As if her own feelings really didn't matter deep down.

And once Chance was reeling, his chest heaving with the weight of all the new emotions hitting him at once, Charlie reached down and switched the pendant's direction, letting Elin feel all of the anxiety Chance was feeling and the fear for the future.

She knew, of course, that both of them had talked about what they were feeling. And she knew that they were working on it. But there was something about actually feeling what it was like that, she hoped, would make more of a difference.

And beyond showing the two of them what the other was feeling, more than anything, she wanted to reassure them. Because underneath that initial flood of negative emotions, Charlie knew that the two of them could also feel what she could hear: they were still madly in love with each other, and both of them wanted desperately to fix things so that they could make each other happy.

And it was a good thing the twins were nearby, too, because Charlie wanted Chance to feel how much Elin loved those kids. She might have been overwhelmed and depressed, but she was so proud of those kids and was as ready to give them the world as she had been prepared to give him everything.

"I know you've talked, but-" Charlie started to say, but Elin held up a hand to cut her off.

"Really?" Elin said simply, a growl at the very edge of her words.

Charlie winced into a smile, but she knew she couldn't make herself apologize when Elin would smell the lie in an apology. So instead, she took the pendant back and gave them another winced smile. "Words don't always work, right?"

"Charlie…" Chance trailed off and pinched the bridge of his nose. She could hear how annoyed and upset they both were, but she could also hear them processing what they'd felt and hoped that it was worth their annoyance.

"I know," she said quickly. "I know I'm not supposed to be sticking my nose in."

"You're not," Elin agreed, her eyes narrowed.

"If it makes you feel any better-"

"It won't," Elin said.

Charlie cleared her throat. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm planning to use this on both of our dads the next time the two of them get into it. Stop them cold when they realize they're both freaking out because they're trying to care about each other."

"Yeah, I'm familiar," Chance said, still pinching the bridge of his nose. He hadn't yet moved from that position, and Charlie didn't blame him. Elin had always known how Chance was feeling, because he had never been good at hiding it. Charlie had almost considered not worrying about letting Elin feel Chance's emotions at all … if not for the fact that she wanted Elin to hear how much Chance was head over heels for her still. She needed the reminder that she was loved and deserved to be loved.

But Chance? Chance had only heard how bad Elin's depression was. And getting the full blast of a Howlett-level depression wave left him understandably shaken. He'd need a minute.

Elin was watching both Charlie and Chance with her eyes narrowed, but the moment Charlie looked away from her twin brother, Elin reached up past Chance's shoulder to punch Charlie in the shoulder. "Don't do that," she said.

Charlie rubbed her arm but nodded all the same. "I won't."

"That's a lie."

"Okay, I'm not planning to right now. Better?"

"Not really."

Charlie took a deep breath and then let it out again. "I just… I wanted to be sure you both heard not just how much you're struggling but how much you care. Still."

Chance finally lowered his hand and stopped pinching the bridge of his nose. "Charlie," he said quietly, "do you think we'd be working this hard if we didn't want things to work out?"

"Well, no, but I didn't want you to lose-"

Chance sighed, but instead of arguing any more, he shifted so he could get out from underneath Elin and then walked around the couch to simply grab Charlie and pull her into a tight hug. And she had been so prepared for everyone to get mad at her, like they always did when she tried to help, that she didn't know what to do except to hug him just as tightly back.

"You don't have to worry about us, Charlie. I promise," Chance told her. "We hit a bad speed bump, yeah, but we're working through it."

"I know. And you're doing great with that, really! I wasn't trying to say you weren't putting in the work or anything," she told him as she clutched on.

"Okay." He held her for a moment longer and then raised both eyebrows significantly. "Sure you weren't trying to speed along the process so you could safely tell us you and Gerry are trying?"

Charlie turned bright red — and got even redder when Elin snorted. "I … I was just…"

"Uh-huh." Chance grinned at her. "Hey, I'm happy for you. And for as happy as Gerry is, it looks like you two are on the same page. I promise, that part of it matters."

"I know."

"And we're fine, Charlie. I'll be right there with you celebrating when you do find out you're pregnant, okay? Just because we're taking a solid-to-permanent pause after the twins doesn't mean we've suddenly turned anti-baby."

"Okay, but when you say it like that, you make me sound insane," Charlie said.

"Because you are," Elin said under her breath — but loud enough that the Summers twins heard it and couldn't possibly misunderstand. "And irritatingly impatient. And nosy."

Charlie winced another smile Elin's way. "Sorry."

Elin shook her head at that. "Go find your Sunshine, huh? That's where your head is anyway."

"You're not wrong," Charlie said, glancing between the two of them before she did, in fact, slip off, knowing there wasn't much she could do at that point anyway.

Elin and Chance watched Charlie head out before, with a sigh, Chance rearranged himself in an invitation for Elin to lean on him again — which she gladly took. "I'd apologize for her, but we both know she's going to do that again."

"No kidding," Elin said, shifting to get more comfortable.

"You okay?"

"Sure," she said. "What about you? I know you didn't ask to get hit with… all of that."

"Yeah, well…" Chance blew out all his breath at once. "I'm not saying she was right, but it was nice to hear… well, to wrap my head around it better."

"I'm sorry; I didn't hear anything after you suggested your sister's emotional assault was right," Elin said dryly, and Chance chuckled.

"Yeah, what was I thinking?" he agreed and then kissed the top of her head while they were snuggled up together. "Seriously, though. I love you, El."

"Love you too, Sweet Summers," Elin said — and this time didn't tease him about using too many words. That tease felt a little bit wrong after Charlie had come through to take words out of the situation.

So instead, the two of them just stayed there, curled up and watching their kids try to explore the world in what limited ways they could.