by Alicia McKenzie
DISCLAIMER: The characters in this story belong to Marvel, and are used without permission for entertainment purposes only. This is an alternate take on the 'Nocturnes' storyline, written as a birthday present for Lynxie. A little language here, and a little implied sexual content. Consider it rated PG-13.
#Fall BACK, damn it!# Cable projected desperately to his team, but the order came too late. The Acolytes closed in, and Cable barely managed to throw up a TK shield to block Unuscione's first attack. The impact sent him reeling, and he lashed out with his recently-regained telepathy, knowing his shield couldn't stand another hit. Unuscione dropped with a shriek, and he straightened, using his psimitar to steady himself.
He took in the tactical situation at a glance, and his heart sank. Off to his left, he saw Jimmy send Frenzy flying with one massive punch. Dani tried to drop Katu with one of her arrows, but missed, while Sam and Bobby were tangling with a whole group of flying Acolytes, not one of whom Cable recognized. Tabitha and Domino were driving. . .Cortez? Oath!. . .away from a stunned Terry.
Too many of them, stab their eyes. . . And their only avenue of retreat back to the PACRAT was cut off by Magneto's 'loyal' Magistrate forces coming in to flank them from behind.
They were going to have to fight their way through. Only option. . .and not a particularly good one. Oath, I hope these flonqing files are worth it! If they weren't, he had only himself to blame. His idea, this whole, idiotic-in-hindsight mission into Genosha. You'd think I've have learned not to piss Magneto off by now. . .
Nate! We need to book, NOW! Domino sent sharply, the words like violet lightning across the link. His head whipped around, and he saw her half-carrying, half-dragging Terry while Tabitha covered them both.
#Open to suggestions, Dom. . .# he sent back, even as he brought his psimitar around, preparing to focus his telekinesis through it and see what one good blast might do to the Magistrates' lines. All else fails, try the direct approach and BLOW yourself a hole. . .
Then he felt it. Felt HIM. His telepathy wasn't up to full strength yet, but that presence was unmistakable. Whirling, he brought his psimitar up, leveling it at the red-armored figure that floated down out of the sky, crackling with electromagnetic fire.
"You DARE, Dayspring?" Magneto thundered, voice full of righteous rage. For a moment, Cable recognized how 'fair' Magneto's anger truly was, here. From a technical standpoint, X-Force were the aggressors, invading the man's 'home'. . .
Even so. Fine points of ethics tended to go out the window at times like this.
"Bad habit of mine," Cable snarled, and channeled a full-strength telekinetic shockwave through his psimitar. Almost too much, he knew, flinching at the dull pain that flared across his chest as the virus lunged forward, testing his control. But the attack was more than effective, sending Acolytes tumbling like bowling pins and even staggering Magneto himself.
And even though he righted himself in the air instantly, he looked. . .shaken?
#Fall back, now!# Cable shouted to X-Force, even as he launched another telekinetic attack, more tightly focused on Magneto, this time. Magnus deflected this one, but there was still that slight. . .hesitation, Cable could sense it! And he suspected very strongly that it was the closest thing to an opportunity that they were going to get. #GO! I don't care what you have to do, get OUT of here!#
Nate. . .
#That's an ORDER, Dom!#
"Shove it, you lunatic!" she screamed, pushing Terry at Jimmy and dropping a feral-looking Acolyte that rushed at her with one perfectly placed shot. "We're not leaving you to fight him alone!"
"That's for damned sure!" Sam shouted, and dove at Magneto from behind. Magnus swatted him away, almost casually. . .no! Cable thought, suddenly sure. It wasn't lack of effort, it was something else. . .what the flonq was going on here?
"This is insanity, Cable!" Magneto shouted, the energy around him glowing brighter as he turned his attention away from Sam. Cable didn't react in time to prevent his psimitar from being wrenched out of his hand, and cold panic surged through him as he felt Magneto's grip on him tighten.
He couldn't move, couldn't access his powers. Memories of their last, lop-sided battle, of the unbelievable agony of being literally ripped in half, flooded back, and he tried desperately, futilely, to break free. Not again, stab his eyes. . .
"NO!" Sam shouted desperately, and there was an echoing cry. . .from Tabitha?
And the world. . .slowed. . .
And. . .stopped. . .
And then restarted, at a mad speed.
Tabitha launched a plasma bomb not at Magneto, but at the building beside him.
Debris blew outwards. . .and slowed. . .
. . .and stopped. . .
And then was deflected with one wave of Magneto's arm. It changed direction, literally in mid-explosion. . .
And slowed. . .
So slow. . .
Domino's eyes widening, oh so slowly, as she saw it coming at her. . .
And the world. . .sped up once more, images crashing through his mind, rapid-fire and overwhelming, laden down by grief and despair. . .
Pain and shock in her violet eyes as she bled to death in his arms. . .
Something shattering in his mind, pulling him down into the endless dark. . .
A white rose, falling onto a coffin. . .
A glass, slipping through his fingers and shattering on pavement. . .
The sharp gleam of a knife, and his own blood, splashing down onto a familiar kitchen counter. . .
Running through the darkness as the storm raged all around him, screaming out her name. . .
. . ."NO!" Sam shouted desperately, diving at Magneto again.
"Cable!" Tabitha cried out, hurling an enormous plasma bomb at the building Magneto hovered beside.
It hit. Debris flew outwards, and Magneto's arm lifted, lifted. . .
Denial exploded in his mind like white fire, and Cable's mind shrieked in pure anguish as the future he had seen began to replay itself before his eyes.
No. . .NO!
And he reached out blindly to the force Magneto hadn't been able to cut him off from, the one he'd used to save himself when he fought Nate Grey, that the Shi'ar device had tapped in the Negev desert to send him back to warn the X-Men of the threat Legion represented.
A power beyond magnetism, beyond psionics. He reached out, grasping it like it was life itself, to save everything that made his life worth living.
It answered him.
He stepped between the moments, slipping right out of Magneto's grip. . .
And reemerged, ten feet away farther down a timeline that might have been, one he'd willed into existence from the vast sea of temporal possibilities. . .just in time to see Dom's eyes widen as the debris flew at her.
She started to shift her weight, to dodge. . .
#NO! DOM!# Too little time, no time even to will a shield into existence around her. . .
Only that power. . .beyond.
Only the knowledge that this couldn't happen.
STOP! the heart and soul of Nathan Summers commanded the scene in front of him.
An unmoving, red-armored statue hung within a force-bubble that glowed with a static, unchanging light. More importantly, though, the debris was frozen in the air, all its deadly momentum halted utterly, in the space between two heartbeats.
Except that Cable's heart skipped its next beat, spasming in his chest at the massive strain on his system. He heard a gasp, a breathless, agonized noise. . .
And he fell, slowly. So slowly. Every trace of warmth vanished from the air as he toppled, strength in every muscle giving out simultaneously. The world tilted around him erratically, and he barely registered the impact with the ground.
His head sagged back limply, and he struggled to keep his eyes open, to see what was happening.
Blue sky. . .
. . .a pale face, framed by black hair. Violet eyes full of fear as she bent over him, her lips moving soundlessly in what might have been his name.
Alive. . .
He focused on her eyes as the world faded to black around him.
***
Someone with a little more common sense probably would have given up after the first time Magneto had brushed him aside like some annoying insect, but common sense was not the main thing on Sam Guthrie's mind at that particular moment. He had seen Magnus knock Cable's psimitar out of his grip and the way Cable had 'frozen'. . .and it had triggered memories of the last time these two former teachers of his had fought.
And there was no way on God's green earth he was going to stand by and watch that, or anything like that, happen again.
He was already in mid-dive once more when he registered Tabitha's attack. It all happened so fast. The plasma bomb hit, the building exploded, Magneto deflected the debris. . .
Right at Dom. But then it was frozen, right there in mid-air, and Cable was somehow standing a good ten feet away from where he'd been only a moment before, free of Magneto's grip and glowing like the heart of the sun.
And Magneto was frozen, too. A whole damned section of the world, frozen in mid-moment. . .
Sam Guthrie slammed into the field of frozen time, and the world seemed to explode.
Spinning helplessly out of control, he saw Magneto falling, making a less than graceful landing in the ruins of the building Tabitha had just wrecked. Saw the debris drop straight out of the sky, a few pieces landing right at Dom's feet as she sprang back with a cry.
He managed to break out of his spin and recover his 'balance'. He glanced, stunned, in Cable's direction, and saw the light around his old teacher's tall figure wink out like a streetlight at dawn as he crumpled limply to the ground. All thought of Magneto, or the battle that had come to a brief, stunned standstill, vanished from Sam Guthrie's mind. He changed direction in one of those hairpin turns he'd practiced so often in the Danger Room, and shot straight for the spot where Cable was sprawled unmoving on the ground.
Dom had beaten him there already. She actually leveled her gun in his direction until she realized it was him. "Get him to the PACRAT, we'll be right behind you!" she snapped as Sam landed.
He didn't debate the matter. Hauling Cable up off the ground, he took to the air again, headed straight for the spot they'd left the PACRAT. It wasn't far away, cloaked in one of the ruined neighborhoods of Hammer Bay. As the Acolytes recovered their composure and pressed the attack again, a few shots from below bounced off his blast field, but most of the flyers were occupied with 'Berto.
At the PACRAT, the hatch, keyed to their bio-signatures, slid open. Inside, Sam laid Cable on one of the acceleration couches as carefully as he could, hesitating for just long enough to check his pulse and make sure he was breathing. Anything more would have to wait. Running forward to the cockpit, he fired up the engines and peered frantically out the cockpit window. "Come on, guys," he muttered. "Any time, now. . ."
They came at top speed towards the PACRAT, what looked like half an army behind them, Roberto and a recovered Terry covering their retreat from the air.There was no sign of Magneto, at least, Sam thought gratefully, and brought up the PACRAT's weapons systems, wincing as he fired a few shots above the heads of the Acolytes and Magistrates behind them. He couldn't bring himself to fire directly into the crowd. Not unless he had to. . .
He didn't. The warning shots bought his teammates a couple of minutes, just enough time to get inside the plane.
"Hatch sealed, Guthrie, get us out of here!" Domino shouted breathlessly from the cabin. Sam nodded grimly and poured on the power, hitting the afterburners as soon as they were airborne.
The PACRAT shot into the western sky, away from Genosha.
***
". . .think he's coming to. Nathan, can you hear me? Nate?" Something cool and wet dabbed gently at his face. "Come on, Nate, open your eyes. . ."
In his mind, he was kneeling in front of a gravestone, shivering in the mud, weeping freely in the rain. A gravestone with Dom's name on it, a name he traced with shaking fingers. . .
"No. . ." he almost whimpered, starting to shake his head, to banish the image. The movement made pain explode behind his eyes, and he froze, a ragged gasp escaping him.
"Nate, it's okay. . ." Her voice. Soft, soothing. . .alive. . .
But he was standing in front of her coffin, staring down at her still face. Waiting for her to wake up.
"No. . .Dom. . .don't. . ."
He was listening to her eulogy.
"What's the matter with him?" A scared voice that had once sobbed at him, crying she's dead, Cable, can't you see that? "Dom. . .?"
He moaned softly, as gentle hands shifted him slightly, and his head was cradled carefully in someone's lap. The pain didn't ease, though. It pounded steadily in his head, ached like a vast empty hole where his heart should be.
Drinking at her wake. Shouldn't be so sunny. . .not at her funeral. Why was it so bright. . .?
"Calm down, Tabitha," her voice said softly, in reply to the question. "He overextended himself. That's all, I think. . ." One of those same gentle hands. . .her hands. . .caressed the side of his face lightly. "Easy, Nate," she whispered, reassuring thoughts flowing from her end of their so-recently restored psi-link. "It's okay. . ."
The psi-link that had broken, whose ragged edges had stabbed into his mind with every breath, every thought of her in the weeks after she had. . .
"Dom. . .don't leave me. . ."
I'm right here, Nathan, her voice whispered along the link. It's all right. . .just rest, babe. We're safely away, just relax. . .
Away. Out of Genosha. And they were. . .on the PACRAT. Not the Blackbird.
It wasn't Jean in his mind, quashing any attempt he made to let go and let the virus consume him. . .
It was Dom.
She was alive.
Alive. Trembling, he took a deep, shaky breath and reached out blindly for her hand. He couldn't open his eyes. . .the idea of what even the tiniest bit of light would do to the pain in his head wasn't particularly appealing. . .but he had to touch her. Not just the psi-link, although he clung to that with all his strength, too.
"Dom," he whispered raggedly, desperately. "Dom. . ."
"I'm here," she said softly, and he could hear worry and puzzlement both in her voice. "I'm here, Nathan, just rest. . ."
She took his hand. The tension drained out of him with a great, shuddering sigh, and he lapsed back into unconsciousness, his grip on her hand never slackening.
***
"Ach, Nathan, would ye PLEASE lie down?" Moira MacTaggert said in exasperation. "I'm not done the bloody examination yet, ye daft man. . ."
"I said I'm fine!"
Domino fought the urge to roll her eyes. Or hit him. "So you keep saying," she said , very calmly, trying to keep him from sliding off the biobed and heading for the door he kept casting longing looks at. "But you were unconscious the whole way here, remember? People who are 'fine' don't pass out for that long."
They'd gone north to Muir Island, instead of back to Westchester, at Cyclops' insistence. Made sense, considering how little medical tech they've managed to restore back at the mansion. But she still wanted an explanation, from Cyclops or Storm or SOMEONE, about why they'd intersected flight paths with the Blackbird over central Africa. What the hell did they think they were doing, anyway? Not like they would have gotten there in time to do us any good. . .
"Let Moira finish," Jean said reprovingly from the other side of the biobed. "Nathan, we have to make sure. . ."
"Of WHAT? I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine, and I'd like my clothes back now, MacTaggert, thank you very much. . ."
"Aw, c'mon, Nate, you look cute in a hospital gown," Domino quipped, and got a somewhat unsteady glare in response. Her smile wavered, and she laid a hand on his arm, more gently. "Just settle down, okay?" she said, a little uncertainly. What was the matter? On the plane, when he'd been so out of it. . .he'd been CRYING, damn it. Nate didn't cry.
"I said I'm fine!" He gave the lie to his words by wincing and grabbing at his head as if he was afraid it was going to fall off. Domino stroked his shoulder soothingly, a little alarmed by the tangle of emotions surging down the psi-link, mingled with the leading edge of what had to be a killer headache, if she was feeling it this keenly too.
Moira gave him an even look. "Saints preserve me from pig-headed, stoic men," she sighed, taking his chin in her hand and staring into his eyes for a moment. "Ach," she said finally, letting go and patting him on the shoulder. "Be off with ye, then."
"Moira!" Scott protested uneasily from the corner Moira had ordered him to stand in so that he'd be 'out of the way'. "Shouldn't you. . ."
"He's nae going to sit still, obviously, and I'm not reading any serious physical irregularities. The bloody virus is under control, so unless ye can produce an experienced chrono-variant mutant for a consultation, I think we're nae going to get anywhere with him right now. . ."
"Well, what about Blaquesmith?" Scott suggested.
Nathan's eyes just about bugged out of his head, and he was off the biobed before Domino could even try and hold him back. "Moira, where are my clothes?" he demanded wildly.
"No one's calling in the little rat, Nate, take it easy. . ." Domino said, following him in concern. He was trembling, swaying dangerously on his feet. A stiff breeze could've blown him over, from the looks of it.
"I need my clothes!" He sounded like he was on the verge of outright hysteria, and Domino blinked, a trace of wariness mixing with concern. A hysterical Cable was NOT a good thing. . .
"They're in the other room, Nathan," Moira sighed, gesturing. "Ye can change in there."
He beat a hasty retreat, and Domino stared after him, bemused and still extremely concerned. "Damn it, this is weird. . ." she muttered, turning back to face the others. "Hell, it was weird to start with. . .I've seen him do a lot of things, but freezing time isn't generally in his repertoire of tricks." She swallowed, thinking of how close that rain of debris had come. My luck's not THAT good. . . She might have avoided the first half-dozen or so pieces, but after that. . .? If he HADN'T frozen time like that, she might have. . .might have. . .
Oh. Oh, shit.
"Domino!" Jean was at her side, looking concerned. "What is it. . .here, sit down before you fall over!" She guided her to a chair, and was almost immediately pushed out of the way by Moira.
"Were ye caught inside the field of frozen time?" Moira asked intently, checking her pulse and reaching for the same tiny scanning device she'd been using on Nate.
Domino batted at Moira's hand in exasperation. "Stop that," she said wearily. "I'm fine." Only she wasn't, not really. Her legs felt rubbery, and she was very glad she was sitting down. "I just think I might know what happened, that's all."
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to think back. What had she felt along the link, in the moment before the debris had frozen in the air? She'd been a little distracted, obviously. . .so fast, it had all happened so fast. How had he reacted that fast? He couldn't have, not unless he'd. . .
Dom. . .don't leave me. . . The delirious plea echoed in her mind. It was the most coherent thing he'd said during those brief minutes of semi-consciousness just after they'd taken off. . .
He'd been crying.
A wave of something close to panic swept over her. Am I supposed to be. . No. No, she wasn't going there. She was here, she wasn't even scratched. Considering the life she lived, she'd have been a basket case a long time ago if she'd freaked out at every close call and near-miss. What is, is, and all that crap. . .
"Shit," she muttered, folding her arms across her chest and trying not to shake. "Damn it. . ." I need a drink.
***
It was one of those perfectly clear days. One of those days where you could look out from the cliffs here on Muir and see forever. . .
Cable buried his aching head in his arms and sat there, huddled and trembling. Forever. That was a laugh. He was beginning to think there was no such thing. Time. Never enough time. You only began to understand something, to. . .care about someone, and then they were torn away. . .
Not real. . .it didn't happen, it DIDN'T happen. . . He repeated the words to himself like a mantra, clinging to them desperately. Not real. But he'd seen it. Felt it. Lived. . .WEEKS of it, all in that moment.
The light dying in her eyes. He swallowed hard, his eyes stinging. He couldn't get the image out of his mind, couldn't shake it. He kept looking down at his hands, his uniform, expecting to see her blood everywhere. . .
So close. . . They'd had close calls before, both of them. Far too many to count. But always, before, it had just HAPPENED. . .you dealt with it, moved past it. He'd never seen it coming. . .never seen what his life could have been like without her.
How little of a life it really was, without her.
It wasn't really THAT cold out here, he told himself feverishly, trying to stop shivering. All in his head. The wind off the water was brisk, a little chilly, but this bone-deep cold, the ice running through his veins. . .all his imagination. If he could just concentrate, focus on something else, he could make it go away. . .
But he couldn't. The day was too perfect. Part of him waited, expecting it to crack and shatter, for Muir's calm beauty to be replaced by. . .
. . .a medlab full of anxious people. A gaping hole in his mind. . .
"Hey, Cable?"
He raised his head slowly, turned it to watch Tabitha walk up to him. Her posture as she approached was hesitant, her hands clenched tightly at her sides. She was in street clothes, and the wind stirred her short blond hair gently.
She looked so young. Troubled, but not in pain. Not like she'd been. . .he shook off the image desperately. It wasn't REAL, he told himself flatly, and looked down at his wrist, tracing where the scar had been. . .wasn't, and would never be. Only one time, and there'd been more, he'd seen himself. . .
. . .lying in medlab, Jean and Charles forcing him to keep control of the T-O virus. Not letting him give in, not letting him let go. . .
. . .beginning a Danger Room program, set to lethal difficulty with all the safeties off. Six holographic Apocalypses, and the welcome, longed-for pain as they tore through his token defenses and hammered him to the ground. So close, so very close to the end he wanted, until someone had deactivated the program and rushed into the room, cursing and shouting. . .
. . .holding the knife, in the kitchen. Blood on the counter. Rogue's tears. . .
He shuddered convulsively. He wasn't sure that knowing THAT didn't shake him as badly as the knowledge of what had. . .should have. . .had been meant to happen in Hammer Bay. He'd never tried to take his own life, not when Aliya had died and Tyler had been lost to him, not when the rebellion had been crushed and his dreams for the future destroyed.
But maybe the cold he'd wrapped around himself, the inner winter he'd worn like a shield, had been slow suicide as much as anything else. All his 'dedication'. . .nothing but a mask to cover the emptiness.
"You okay?" Tabitha said, sitting down beside him and eyeing him worriedly. He nodded, slowly, not trusting his voice. Not trusting his expression particularly, either; from the look on her face, he wasn't doing a particularly good job at keeping it neutral. She reached out hesitantly, and he forced himself not to flinch as she took his hand. Don't pull away. . .then she'll KNOW there's something wrong. . .
As if she didn't already. He tried to smile, trying to focus on her face. . .her face, here and now, not the image of her in tears from somewhere else. . .
"You're shaking," she said with a frown. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"Fine, Tabitha," he lied, staring back out at the water.
"You had us going for a while there."
"Life would be boring without a little stress once in a while."
"I don't know," Tabitha said with a strained laugh. "I think I could do without stress like that."
He could feel her eyes on him. Feel. . .his telepathy was still shaky at times, but he could still sense the question she was trying so hard not to ask. The fear that seethed inside her. . .
He flinched away from that. Too close. . .too much similarity, there. . .
"Cable. . ." Her grip on his hand tightened, and he shivered. "I almost. . ." Her voice trailed off, small and hurt-sounding. "I almost. . .Dom could've been KILLED, and it would have been my fault."
"I don't see how you can look at it that way." His voice came out numb. Cold. "You couldn't have predicted what Magneto did. . ."
Magneto. He could FEEL the echo of that psi-link that would never be, now. . .
"But I should have," Tabitha said, sounding miserable. "I should have seen what he was going to do. . .then you wouldn't have had to, well, do what you did. . ." She hesitated for a moment, and he felt her curiosity overcoming her fear. "How DID you know? It all happened so fast. . ."
"I saw it," he said and looked over at her in time to see her eyes widen. "I saw it," he repeated, his voice shaking as he repeated the words. "I saw her. . ."
. . .lightless violet eyes.
Tabitha was suddenly in front of him, grabbing his hands tightly. Her face was chalk-white. "Easy. . .you're scaring me here, big guy. . ."
"I SAW her. . ." Why was that the only thing he could say, all of a sudden? Maybe because it was still the only thing he could really see, the only thing that seemed vivid enough to be real. . ."I saw her. . ."
Alarm was clear as day on Tabitha's face now. "Come inside," she said pleadingly. "You shouldn't be out here like this. . ." She glanced off to her right, and the sudden relief on her face was almost dazzling. "Dom! Over here!"
He flinched, pulling away from Tabitha and scrambling to his feet, walking over to stand at the edge of the cliff. He heard a soft cry of protest from Tabitha, but shut it out. What did she think he was going to do? Walk off the cliff or something?
He just couldn't watch, that was all. He couldn't look at Dom, because if he did. . .if he looked into her eyes again, and then this turned out not to be real. . .
"Okay." The voice coming from behind him was quiet, weary, but full of a strange humor. "If you do anything stupid at the moment, Nate, I'm going to be very pissed at you."
He stared down at the waves, crashing against the rocks far below, and said nothing. There wasn't much noise here. Just the wind, the water, the occasional cry of a seabird.
She kept waiting. She would wait him out, he knew. Probably until this whole cliff fell into the sea; she was always saying how stubborn he was, but really, he wasn't anywhere as bad as she was.
"Wasn't planning on it," he said finally, his voice gravelly.
"I'm glad to hear it. Nate. . .look at me."
He couldn't.
"Have I suddenly grown a third eye or something? Or maybe my nose has turned green. . .hey, Tabitha, I'm not looking suddenly freakish, am I? Whoops. She's gone. Guess she thought we needed to talk for a while." A hand touched his arm, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. "Damn, can't imagine WHY, can you? Why don't we back away from the edge of the cliff, Nate? At least until you stop being this jumpy."
Her voice was light, teasing. It was their usual banter. Humor as coping mechanism. One, just one of the habits they'd fallen into. . .
Cable turned, stared down into those luminous violet eyes. "I saw you die," he said roughly.
She didn't bat an eyelash. "I figured it was something like that," she said, more softly. "And? Do I need to open a vein or something, to show you that I'm real?"
. . .her blood, everywhere. . .
A strangled gasp escaped him, and before he knew what he was doing, he'd taken a step backwards, and the grass and rock at the edge of the cliff was crumbling beneath his feet. . .
And she was hauling him forward, panic flashing along the link. Off-balance, they both landed on the ground. Cable, his mind not quite processing what had happened, blinked as Domino sat up and grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, her eyes blazing and fury seething along the link.
"You. . .unbelievable ASSHOLE!" she snarled at him. "I should. . .I should kick your ass back to San Francisco personally!"
He opened his mouth to say. . .something, anything. Words failed, and he reached out, as blindly as he had on the plane, and pulled her to him. "Dom. . ." he whispered raggedly into her hair. "I. . .oath, I FELT it, in my mind. . .you were. . ." The anguish flooded back, and he couldn't even begin keep it off the link. It was so much of a release it was almost painful.
She stiffened for a moment, and then he felt her arms go around him. "Didn't happen," she said softly, hugging him tightly.
"But I. . ."
"It didn't HAPPEN," she repeated, her voice firm, if just as soft. "Hell," she continued with a gentle chuckle, "it's even sort of flattering. How many women can say there's a man out there who'd change the course of history for them?"
More humor. He took a deep breath and then pushed her out to arm's length, staring down into those luminous violet eyes. Trying to etch THAT image onto his mind, to replace the other.
"I saw you die," he said, surprised at how level his voice sounded. "I saw you die, Dom. I FELT you die. . .and I saw everything that happened afterwards. . ."
Her eyes flashed with helpless exasperation. "Everything that didn't HAPPEN, damn it! Why are you having such difficulty with that concept? I'm right here in front of you, Nate. . ."
"I can't tell the difference!" he snapped, his voice breaking. "I keep seeing what should have happened! I can't. . ." Images flooded back, and he flinched. "I can't get it out of my mind, Dom. . ."
One elegant eyebrow arched. "What should have happened?" she repeated softly, something very dangerous in the question. "Do you believe that?" He swallowed, not answering, and her eyes hardened into piercing amethyst. "Do you? Because if you do, Nate, then everything you SAY you believe, about how we make the future with our own choices. . .all of that's bullshit, isn't it?"
A philosophical discussion. Usually it was him who started them at the worst possible moments. . ."Yes!" he snarled feverishly, ignoring her surprise. "It is all bullshit. . .EVERYTHING'S bullshit. All the Askani philosophical bullshit, my bullshit excuse for a mission. . .if you'd died, Dom. . .I. . ." A sob choked off whatever would have come out next. . .he didn't know what that would have been. Words, words had always been so difficult, such a leap in the dark. . .
She reached up, her hand brushed lightly across his cheek. Brushing away tears. "You don't have to say it, Nate," she said, her voice hoarse and unsteady. "The words. . .they don't matter."
"But I never said them, Dom. . .I never. . ." His voice broke, and he swallowed.
He'd never said them. Not to her, not once in all these years. Only once in his life, standing in a meadow full of flowers, to another woman entirely. . .
The woman he'd held as she died, the woman who'd taken his heart with her to the grave. Or so he'd thought, until a brash young mercenary had walked into a bar in Toronto and changed his world. . .
Jen, dying in his arms.
Dom, dying in his arms. . .
Repetition. . .almost. The universe trying to tell him something? Giving him a second chance, for the first time in his whole flonqing life. . . ?
Take it if you dare, Dayspring. . .
The why of any situation. . .
The truth. . .to admit it, to live for someone, not just something. To face the darkness descending over their lives, not just with her beside him, where she would have anyway. . .he knew that much. . .but to throw the light they'd created between them right in its teeth. . .
He reached out, brushing a stray lock of midnight hair away from her face. "I love you," he said, his voice rough. "No matter what happens. . .no future without you in it is worth living."
The sudden blaze of light along the link nearly overwhelmed him. She swallowed, and reached up for his hand. "Do you really think," she asked in a voice whose subdued tone barely covered the hesitancy beneath it, "that you needed to tell me that?" Her lips curved in a soft, almost wondering smile. "After you stopped TIME for me, you idiot?"
Her grip on his hand was tight, reassuring. An anchor. He could feel her pulse. This close, he could hear her heartbeat, steady and strong. . .
He wanted to listen to it for the rest of his life.
"Actions speak louder than words," she said, almost in a whisper.
"My actions haven't." Not always. . .not even often. He sometimes wondered how she'd ever managed to forgive him. . .
"No?" Those glorious eyes shone with unshed tears. "Do you have any idea what you did when you asked me to come and help you with X-Force, Nate? These kids. . .this isn't just a team, Nate, it's a family. Something I haven't had for. . .longer than I like to think about. And you gave that to me, just by trusting me. . ." Her sudden smile was dazzling. "A family. OUR family, lout. . .even if you were the last one to realize it."
"Dom. . ."
"No, you got to talk. Now it's my turn," she said firmly, a tear escaping down her cheek. "You trusted me at your back, almost from the moment we met. You trusted me with the kids, before you even admitted they were so important to you. . ." She leaned forward and kissed him, gently and lingeringly. When they finally separated, she was smiling through her tears. "I just wish," she whispered, "that I could remember the exact moment I trusted you. . .and myself. . .enough to let myself love you. But I can't. All the years. . .they blur into each other, Nate. I can't imagine my life without you."
He took her in his arms again, more gently this time. Thinking about how he'd hidden himself away in Hell's Kitchen, focused on nothing but his mission. . .not even letting that argument they'd had and her near-death at Blockade's hands bring him out of that feverish conviction that he had to shut her, the kids, everyone out of what was left of his life.
He'd been getting ready to die, he recognized in a single, blazing moment of clarity. He'd felt the end coming, for better or worse, and gotten stuck in full martyr-mode. . .
And he'd forgotten he was alive.
So did I, I think, she said softly on the link. Leaving you, leaving the kids. . .and then, even when I came back, it wasn't right. Not. . .without you. Laughter bubbled along the link. You know, they didn't tell me? The little sneaks. . .they disappear one night, and then just SHOW up the next morning, with you in tow. Did you even see the way they were smirking?
#No. . .I was too busy looking at you,# he said, with perfect honesty.
Losing your observational skills in your old age, I see. She reached out along the psi-link in what was almost a caress, and he closed his eyes, letting go of the fear. Turning away from the shadows. Let's go home, Nate.
***
He was watching her. Even in the dark. She could feel it. A tiny smile flickered across Domino's face as her grip on one of the extra pillows tightened. Then, before he could sense her intentions, she rolled over and smacked him in the face with it.
"Ouch," he said, and rolled over onto his back. "That wasn't nice."
He sounded so offended. It was kind of cute. "Well, go to SLEEP, idiot," she said, pushing herself up on an elbow and staring down at him in amusement. "This lying awake all night watching me breathe is cute, but we've been home for two days now, Nate. You need some sleep. No wonder you nearly used your plate as a pillow at the breakfast table this morning."
"I can't sleep," he muttered.
She grimaced. The amount of exhaustion leaking down the link was making HER light-headed. "Please don't tell me. . ."
"I'm waiting for Blaquesmith to show up," Nathan said with a sigh.
She raised an eyebrow. "You still think he will?"
"I know he will. He had to have felt that. . ." He trailed off for a moment, and she felt that familiar discomfort the mention of Blaquesmith always provoked edging down the link again. Domino thought she'd figured it out, finally; Blaquesmith was an authority figure to Nate, and Nate, being something of one himself by nature, didn't relate so well to authority figures. "I don't know why he wasn't waiting on the doorstep when we got back. I mean, he's not going to let me run around altering the timestream. Definitely not SOP, from his point of view. . ."
"Well, you weren't planning to do it AGAIN anytime soon, were you?" Domino asked reasonably. From HER point of view, Blaquesmith could just stay gone, permanently, and she wouldn't shed a tear.
"No. . .well, you never know. . ." He shifted, a strange-almost fidget that made her smile until she noted the odd look on his face. "I'd do it again," he said, his voice a little strange. "In a heartbeat." He rubbed at his techno-organic shoulder, almost irritably. "And Blaquesmith can go flonq himself."
She started to say something, but the words froze on her lips as she sensed an edge of pain from his end of the psi-link. "Still got a headache?" she asked, her voice light. But there was something inside her, something that quivered slightly as things fell into place, nudged along by that. . .sense she sometimes had, the one that let her size up a fight and know, not consciously but with an unshakeable certainty, which way to run. Where to place her shots. The awareness that was still so. . .shadowy, even all these years after her powers had emerged.
"No," he muttered. "Just. . .sore, I guess. You're right, I should probably sleep. . ." He snorted. "Didn't even make it through my little workout with Sam today. Got so flonqing short of breath. . .annoying to be old."
She smiled faintly. "Old and decrepit, eh?" she said, maintaining her outward calm even while the picture emerged, the possibilities laying themselves out for her examination in a rather more leisurely way than usual. She laid her hand on his chest for a moment, ignoring his start of surprise, and called the image of his face in the moment she'd looked at him, after he'd frozen time, back to mind.
The strain there, his features twisted by the immense effort, as he'd started to collapse. . .
But the TO virus hadn't spread.
He was just tired. He needed to rest. He had. . .
. . .been rubbing his LEFT shoulder.
. . .so flonqing short of breath. . .
I'd do it again. In a heartbeat. . .
She listened to his heartbeat for a minute or two. It was steady, strong. Reassuringly so.
But that. . .edginess wouldn't go away.
"Dom?" he asked, blinking up at her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she lied, smiling. Holding that layer of calm in front of the link like a shield, glad he was tired enough he probably wasn't picking much up.
Moira had checked him over more thoroughly once they'd come in from their conversation on the cliffs. She would have seen any problem. . .
He was just tired, Domino told herself. That's all it was. But what if. . .if he'd pushed himself just a little bit farther, what would have happened?
His eyes, as she'd turned towards him in that moment. So determined.
He'd been watching her for the last two days, constantly. Clinging to the psi-link. . .still struggling with fear.
She'd never thought. . .it hadn't even occurred to her how easily it could have gone the other way. How close she might have come to losing him, instead. . .
"Go to sleep, Nate," she said softly, stretching out beside him. "I'll be right here."
Eventually, he did. His breathing slowed, and she felt nothing, no conscious thought along the psi-link.
But it was a long time before she could follow him.
***
"Keep your guard up, James," Cable said, backing off for a second to let Jimmy regain his balance. He reached up and wiped sweat from his brow, a little disgusted at how heavily he was breathing. Five minutes with him and I'm winded. . .damn it, I'm out of shape.
"Haven't really had anyone to practice with until you came back, with 'Star gone," Jimmy said cheerfully. He hadn't even broken a sweat, of course. "I mean, Dom's been good enough to work out with me every once in a while, but it's better when your opponent's more your size."
"I bet. . ." Cable stepped around a right hook that probably would have put him on the mats if it had connected. "I bet she still knocked you on your rear a few times, boy. . ."
Jimmy laughed. "A few?"
"I'll. . .take that as a yes," Cable grunted, something mollified when Jimmy didn't manage to block his next attack. It connected, and the younger man staggered back a step, giving him a respectful grin.
At that point, of course, Jimmy only redoubled his attack. He didn't push it too far. . .this was just sparring, and he knew how the game went. . .but Cable had forgotten how fast the kid was. He hadn't been THAT fast, even at twenty-five.
Almost immediately, he was on the defensive, barely managing to block each successive strike. Sweat ran into his eyes, fatigue trembling in every muscle, and he found himself falling increasingly back into old, basic defensive patterns that grew more ragged as the moments went on. Ragged. . .and far too simple to be of any use against a hand-to-hand combatant as good as Jimmy.
A stumble, and a half-strength kick caught him off-balance, sending him to the floor. Wheezing for breath, he started to pull himself back to his feet automatically, but Jimmy was already crouching down beside him, radiating shock.
"You okay?" A strong hand closed over his shoulder, and Cable nodded, still trying to get his breath back. "You're sure?"
His chest hurt. "Fine," he managed, his voice raspy. "My fault. . .too slow. Just give me a hand up. . ."
Jimmy did, and then stood there, the worried look on his face almost comical. "Look. . .sir, this is just sparring. We don't need to be doing this if you're not. . ."
"What?" Cable growled irritably, forcing himself to straighten. "Not at my best?"
"I didn't say that, I just. . ."
"Never mind, Jimmy." No point in arguing about something that was his fault, not Jimmy's. "Don't worry about it. . ."
"Sure. . .okay," Jimmy said, still visibly uneasy. "We can do it again some other time, right? When you're. . .some other time."
"You two look like you've been up to no good," Domino said, leaning on the doorframe. She strode in, raising an eyebrow as she took the scene in. "Definitely no good. Whatever happened to just going for a nice morning run?"
Cable winced, and smiled ruefully, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. "I'm going to go nurse my wounded pride," he said as dryly as he could, heading over to grab a towel. "Why don't you go make friends with a punching bag or something, Proudstar? You won't have to worry about going too easy on them. . ."
"Uh. . .I'll just go have some breakfast, I guess," Jimmy said uncomfortably, and nodded to Dom as he left.
"Having trouble keeping up with the kids, old man?" she said wryly, following him as he went over and sat down on one of the benches at the edge of the room.
"Told. . .you I was getting old and decreipt," he said, the smile a little harder to manage this time. His pulse was slowing down, at least, but it still felt like there was a steel band around his chest, squeezing steadily. And now that the adrenalin was wearing off, sitting down was more of a necessity than a choice. "Come to think of it, a run would have been a much. . .better idea, I think."
He felt her sudden concern through the psi-link, so thick he could almost taste it. As she came over and sat down beside him, he leaned back against the wall behind him, taking as deep a breath as he could. It sent him into a fit of coughing that only made the pain in his chest worse. He heard her swear, and then jumped as she took his hand, checking his pulse.
"Nate, damn it. . ."
"I'm. . .fine," he gasped out, focusing on regulating his breathing. "Okay. . .so I should've been more c-careful, I know. . ."
"Don't bullshit me, Summers," she snapped tautly. He didn't turn to look at her, knowing what he'd see on her face. It was ridiculous for her to be worrying about him, when SHE was the one who'd had such a close call. . .
"Really. . .I'm okay." He was getting his breathing back under control, and the pain in his chest was easing, a little. Enough that he could put on a good show of not feeling it. He was used to suppressing pain. . .he sometimes thought that was what he did best. "Just pushed too hard, that's all. . .and Jimmy hits like a truck, even when it's by accident."
"I think you're lying through your teeth," she said, her voice almost conversational, all of a sudden. He looked sideways at her, and was taken aback by the rigid control in her eyes, like a steel wall. "You're worrying me, Nate. I think maybe we should go to the mansion, have McCoy look you over. . ."
"Moira said I was fine," he pointed out, trying to brush off her concern. Absolutely the wrong thing to do, of course, and he should have known that.
"It's not that I don't trust Moira, but she's distracted, Nate, and with how uncooperative you were being. . ." She smiled humorlessly at the exasperated look he gave her. "Just stating facts, babe, so don't bristle at me. . ."
Facts. He tried to focus, to move past the automatic instinct to cover up any weakness. This was Dom, after all. . .if he couldn't be honest with her about something like this, he might as well give up on the world right here and now.
A lot of it was exhaustion, and this little mistake with Jimmy certainly hadn't helped. But there was something more. He felt. . .off. The flashes of the other timeline, the one he'd averted, had pretty much stopped, thank the Bright Lady, but he wasn't feeling like himself. It could be nothing. . .
Even so.
"All right," he agreed, wiping the irritation off his face. "Can't hurt to check, I suppose. . .plus it wouldn't be bad to be away from the warehouse if Blaquesmith should show up looking for me."
The corner of her mouth quirked upwards, but there still wasn't much humor to the expression. "You're being awfully agreeable about this."
"No point in arguing about it, is there?' he said. Not when, in the end, it made more sense than he liked to admit.
She made one of those eloquent monosyllabic noises of hers , one that sounded a great deal more suspicious than amused. "Up for some breakfast?" she asked.
"I guess," he hedged, not really sure he was ready to get up yet. "Just as long as it's not some of that yogurt and bran goop of Terry's. . ."
"Hey, it's good for you. . ."
"Reminds me too much of the nutrient mush we used to eat when we were in the field, back in my time. . ."
"Oh, so now you're a gourmand, are you?"
"Overcompensation," he chuckled softly, and tried not to lean on the wall too much as he pulled himself to his feet. "You know me. . ."
"I try," she said dryly. But her eyes still searched his face, her expression vaguely unsatisfied, as if whatever answer she was looking for was eluding her.
***
She walked through the falling snow, searching for some sign, some landmark to tell her where she was. But all she could see were the white-shrouded trees around her, barely visible in the half-light.
There was no sign of the sun. . .no sign of anyone else here. She was alone. . ."Hello?" she cried, but the snow swallowed her voice, and she fell silent, oddly loathe to pierce this textured silence. She felt. . .she felt. . .
Afraid. Afraid to know what was out there.
There was no sign of the sun. Brushing snow from her hair, she walked on, and on, noticing the woods around her thinning out, the trees becoming fewer and farther between, until she stood out in the open, her distance-vision hampered by the snow.
Where am I? Domino thought in confusion. She didn't see anything recognizable, yet she was so sure she knew this place, so positive. . .
Deep golden light flared amid all the whiteness, and she reached for a weapon that wasn't there. She halted the reaction in mid-motion when her vision cleared and she saw Nathan standing there.
A sudden swell of relief hit her. "Nate! What the hell's going on. . ." She trailed off, the relief fading into puzzlement. He wasn't looking at her. . .hell, he hadn't even reacted to her voice. "Nate?" she called, taking a step closer, her eyes widening as she got a better look at him.
He was wearing. . .armor, but it was strange, more like what she'd seen the Clan Chosen wearing, in the future. Except that it was unmistakably HER Nate, not any younger version. Her Nate, but the look in his eyes, that emptiness. . .
And he was hurt. Blood darkened his silver hair, and as he took a staggering step in the direction he was facing, she saw the way he dragged one leg, how the arm on the same side hung limp and useless. There were gashes in his armor, great scorched rents. . .
What had he been fighting. . .or who? "Nathan," she said desperately, moving towards him. "What happened? Nate, where. . ."
He ignored her. Hobbling, dragging himself forward, he went perhaps ten steps and then stopped, sinking to his knees.
She realized, with a cold, horrified shock of realization, that he was kneeling in front of a gravestone. He reached out with his good arm and pushed the snow away, weakly but determinedly.
"Nate?" she whispered, coming up to him behind and kneeling down beside him. "Can't you hear me?" She reached out to touch his shoulder, and then drew her hand back sharply.
No warmth. No reaction to her touch. . .
And nothing on the psi-link.
"I did it, Dom," he said in a weak, rasping voice.
"Did what. . ." she asked automatically, and then bit her lip. "Nathan," she repeated softly, almost a plea. What was she seeing, damn it? What did this all mean?
"I did it," he whispered raggedly, reaching out to the gravestone.
The gravestone that had her name on it. Her name, and a date of death. . .she knew that date. Three days ago. The date she should have died? She heard a sharp, indrawn breath, and realized the sound had come from her.
"I did it, Dom," Nathan repeated weakly, his voice oddly childlike. "He's dead, Dom. . .it's over." He slumped, almost collapsing in on himself. "All of it. . ." Tears were mingling with the blood on his face, with the snow. . .
Blood on snow. . .the snow beneath his injured leg was turning rapidly crimson. His face was pale, almost as pale as the snow, the light in his left eye flickering, fading.
"I don't want to stay here," he whispered, and laid down in the snow with a broken sigh that seemed to have been ripped from somewhere deep in his chest. He turned his head to the side, as if listening for something from deep within the ground. A word, an answer. . ."All that was left, and it's done. . ." He shifted position, a gasp of pain escaping him. "They'll know where I came. . .but they'll never get back in time. . ."
"Nate. . .no," she said, her heart lurching in her chest. "Get up, damn it," she swore, reaching down to haul him to his feet if she had to. "You have to get to shelter or something, . Nate. . .damn it, don't you do this!"
Nothing. She pulled at his shoulders, trying to lift him, but he was so heavy, she couldn't move him. . ."No," she almost sobbed. "Damn you! Get up!"
"Not worth it, without you," he whispered, the look in his eyes growing hazy, distant. "Never was. . ."
"No! Nate, don't. . .NO!"
She sat straight up in bed, gasping for breath, her hair plastered to her head with sweat. No. . .not real, just a dream, she told herself frantically. The familiar outlines of their bedroom took shape around her, and she glanced down to see Nathan lying beside her. Still asleep, he was trembling, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead.
Just a dream? Possibilities raced frantically through her mind. A dream, or part of what he'd seen, back in Hammer Bay?
. . .no. It couldn't be. A strange lump settled in her throat. It couldn't have ended like that. . .him, alone in the snow, giving up. . Not him. . .
Not because of her. . Not JUST because she was dead.
She reached out along the psi-link, almost clutching at it.
All she felt was cold. Something fading. . .
"Nate, wake up," she said hoarsely, shaking him lightly. He muttered something in Askani, and she fought back the urge to curse, or shake him harder. "Nathan. Wake UP." She had to know for sure, be certain one way or the other.
"Umm. . ." His eyes fluttered open, and he stared up at her for a long moment, his expression odd, dazed. Not quite awake.
Then the psi-link blazed, and he sat up, taking her in his arms with a gasp. "Dom," he whispered raggedly. "Oath, I thought. . ."
"Nate. . ." She wanted to comfort him, wanted. . .but she had to know. Pulling away, she took his face between her hands, staring up into those haunted eyes desperately. "I saw it, Nate," she said painfully. "I saw you, by. . .by MY grave."
He stiffened, trying to turn away. She didn't let him. "Just a dream, Dom. . ." The protest sounded weak, even to him, to judge by the way he was trying NOT to meet her eyes.
"Tell me," she said brokenly, ignoring the tears that escaped, spilling down her cheeks. "Tell me that you wouldn't do that, Nate. . .that you wouldn't give up like that, because of ME. Please. . ."
He finally took a deep breath, and looked at her, unwaveringly. "I told you back on Muir," he said, his voice as steady as his gaze. "No future without you is worth living."
It hit her like a kick to the gut. "Damn you, you bastard," she almost sobbed, her shoulders slumping as she let her hands fall to the bed. "Don't you dare lay something like that on me. . ." She struggled a little as he pulled her into his arms again. "If you ever. . .if that ever happens, and you pull something like that, I swear to God, I'm going to track you down and make you miserable for fucking ETERNITY, do you hear me?"
"I hear you," he said hoarsely. "But. . ."
"No buts," she whispered, tears falling freely. "You're stronger than that, you idiot. . ."
"Maybe I wouldn't want to be stronger, without you. . ."
"No!" she said, almost violently. "That's not a choice you get. . .promise me, Nate, damn it. . ."
The vulnerability on his face was painful to see. "I can't, Dom."
"Promise me! Please, Nate. . ." she begged him unashamedly.
"Don't ask me that." He touched her hair with a shaking hand. "Ask me. . .anything but that. What I'm thinking, how I'm feeling. . .just not that, Dom, please. . .I can't give you the answer you want."
Misery hardened into sudden resolution. "Fine!" she blazed, wiping the tears away. "You walked right into this one, old man, so you damned well better not dodge the question."
"Fair enough." He sounded very old, very tired. Domino didn't let it stop her.
"How ARE you feeling?" she asked, almost mercilessly, her eyes boring into his as she hurled the 'question' at him like a challenge. "Since we got back from Genosha, Nate. . .and you know what I mean, damn it. . ."
He nodded, slowly, as if making some kind of decision. "That there's something wrong," he said softly. "With me. That it's not just being tired, or getting old. And that it's not going away. . ."
Something broke inside her at the utter calm of the statement, the acceptance, and she all but threw herself into his arms, trembling. "On the list of questions in my life I wish I hadn't asked. . ." she whispered. She'd known, oh, she'd known. . .but to hear him admit it somehow made it worse. More real. . .
#Dom. . .#
"Shut up," she said fiercely, and kissed him, clinging to him, to the psi-link, as tightly as she could. If she did that, if she didn't let go. . .her thoughts tumbled over each other, a tangle of hurt and anger and fear and desperate denial.
Until a warm golden light reached down the link and soothed the conflict with a touch. #I think we've both been focusing on the wrong thing, Dom. . .# His voice was soft, reassuring, but strangely chagrined. #We're both afraid of losing each other, when we're both right here. . .#
Never can get our act together, can we. . .
#Maybe not. Let's give it a shot, though. . .# His hand moved upwards, stroked her hair gently, almost tentatively. #Persistence is a virtue and all that. . .#
Oh, shut up. . . She shivered as his hands drifted downwards. A surge of doubt broke the moment, and she stiffened, hesitant. Nate, are you sure that you're. . .
#Dom, the day I'm not 'up for' THIS, with you, you might as well dig my grave. . .#
Just as long as. . .
He lowered them both back down to the bed. "Stop worrying," he said with a deep chuckle. "Your face is going to freeze that way."
She started to protest again, but the words died on her lips as he turned his attention to 'distracting' her. Doing far too good a job of it, too, she thought breathlessly, jerking involuntarily as his hands drifted over her body, hitting each sensitive spot with unerring accuracy. There was so much familiarity about this, so much instinctive knowledge of each other's reactions. . .it frightened her, sometimes.
She felt. . .light-headed, almost weightless. She reached out to him across the link, needing an anchor, the solid, steady strength of his presence. But what she felt, instead, was a strange, dazed need, desperately yearning and yet desperately afraid at the same time. Doubt, swelling every time he touched her, as if he wasn't sure she was real, couldn't trust the evidence of his own senses.
Fear, from him, was one of the few things she'd never been able to endure. Reaching up and pulling him towards her, she kissed him again, even more fiercely than before, her fingers tangling in his silver hair.
#Dom. . .oxygen is a GOOD thing. . .#
But she could feel the doubt fading, the fear receding as he started to let go of it, almost despite himself. That damned self-control of his was his own worst enemy, sometimes. Smiling against his lips, she let her hands slide downwards, matching his movements, giving herself over to the tidal forces that flowed through and between them. Pulling him with her, her heart soaring as she felt his anxious reserve shatter, felt him surrender. . .
And they were there, alone in the moment, body and soul, as time, for a single, precious eternity of an instant. . .
Stopped.
Much later, her head pillowed against his shoulder, she fought back her own weariness, listening in mute anguish to the unevenness of his breathing as he dozed fitfully.
Tomorrow morning. If she had to get the kids to drag him bodily onto the plane and sit on him all the way to Westchester, she would.
I'm not ready to lose you yet, either, you stubborn old son of a bitch. . . She blinked back tears as he reached out to her in his sleep, murmuring something in Askani. She reached up, tracing the side of his face with a gentle hand. "Not yet," she whispered determinedly. "Not for a long time to come."
***
"So?" Cable asked quietly, as Hank McCoy turned away from the computer screen. "What's the verdict, doc?" His attempt at humor appeared to fall a little flat, and he raised an eyebrow. "McCoy. . ."
They were alone in the medlab. He wouldn't have objected if Dom had wanted to stay, but she'd muttered something about needing some air, and he'd recognized the excuse for what it was, her needing some space to deal with the anxiety he could still feel seething along the link from her end. Scott and Jean were in town. . .something he couldn't help but be grateful for. . .and no one else in the mansion knew exactly why he and Dom had showed up so unexpectedly this morning. If there was. . .news, to be broken, it gave him a little time to figure out the best way to do it.
Hank's expression, when he finally turned around, was a study. Cable tilted his head, unable to help a faint smile. "I'm not reading your mind, McCoy, but from the look on your face. . ."
"Nathan. . ." Hank took a deep breath, and shook his head. "It could be worse," he said, levelly.
"But it could also be better, too, I'm gathering," Cable said, keeping the smile on his face by sheer force of will. Just another mask. . .
Hank hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "It could," he said, almost painfully, and turned back to the screen, gesturing for Cable to come and take a look.
Cable sighed and slid off the examination table. "In English, okay?" he said dryly, looking over McCoy's shoulder, trying to ignore the sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach as the Beast started to explain.
***
Domino sat on the fallen log, staring with a sort of distracted fascination at a large, blueish beetle crawling through the grass at her feet. It was pretty, in an insectoid way. . .almost irridescent in the sun.
She reached out, touched it lightly. It responded by scuttling away even faster, disappearing into the grass. Domino smiled sourly. Running away. . .now, isn't THAT familiar.
She should be back there, she thought, quite determinedly NOT looking in the direction of the mansion. If she wasn't such a coward, she'd be in medlab right now, waiting with Nathan to hear what Hank had to say, for better or worse.
Instead, she was out here. Hiding in the woods. She'd justified it by telling herself that she needed time to prepare herself, just in case. . .so she could react the way he needed, be what he needed, if. . .
The touch along the psi-link was hesitant, and Domino flinched. #Dom. . .oh, there you are.#
His voice sounded strange, she thought, the knot in her stomach tightening. Damn. She fought back the urge to reach along the link and demand a 'update'. She could wait until. . .
Familiar footsteps impinged on the silence. She stared fixedly at the grass until they got closer, and stopped, a shadow blocking the sunlight.
"This seat taken?"
She shrugged, not feeling quite up to acknowledging the attempt at humor. "You see someone's name on it?" she asked bleakly, still not looking at him as he sat down beside her.
The news hadn't been good. She could feel it. The tension in his body as he sat beside her, the strange, unsettled feeling along the psi-link. . .she reached out for his hand, and was vaguely reassured by the strength of his grip.
"What did Hank say?" she asked softly, finally turned to look at him. His face was pale, the look in his eyes grave, but there was a strange, barely-there smile playing on his lips, as if he found something about this situation too ironic for words.
"I can't use my chronal abilities again."
"'Can't'?"
"Hank 'considers it inadvisable'. They put too much stress on my system. . .he thinks maybe because they were latent for so long." The smile flickered. "Not a big deal. Oath, if I only got to use them once in my life, I'm not arguing with the timing. Pun intended."
She didn't let the weak attempt at a joke distract her. "Nate. . ." She swallowed. "There's more, isn't there?"
He nodded slowly, his hand tightening on hers. Along the psi-link, that. . .tightness increased. When he continued, his voice was softer, regretful. "There was some. . .damage. My blood pressure's pretty much off the charts, and Hank picked up some kind of heart arrythmia. A couple of other things, too. . .he says it's all probably delayed reaction, which is why Moira missed it. It wouldn't have shown up while there was still so much residual temporal energy in my body. He wants to run more tests, but I. . .I think that I'd better look up Nate Grey while we're in the area, have a little talk with him about things. . .no, Dom, don't. . ."
She ignored him, pulling her hand out of his and springing to her feet, staring down at him and absolutely unable to help the angry tears spilling down her cheeks. "If you tell me to calm down, I SWEAR I'm going to break your jaw!"
"Dom. . ." His voice was still soft, but more distressed, and she stopped in mid-pace, her shoulders slumping as he got up and came over to her, taking her hands in his. His next words took her by surprise. "Dom, do you have any idea how old I am?"
She blinked up at him, the question sounding odd at a moment like this. "Not really, no," she finally said hoarsely, trying to push the anger away. It wasn't directed at him, after all. . .she shouldn't be venting at him simply because he was a handy target. "You've never. . ." She reached up with a shaking hand, brushing a stray bit of silver hair out of his eyes. "You haven't really. . .visibly aged, in all the time I've known you. Your hair's gone silver, but. . ."
"It's all the time-travel," he said with a slight smile. "Does funny things to the aging process. . .but I think you'd be surprised if I told you how old I really was, Dom. I make Xavier look like a spring chicken."
She punched him lightly in the arm. "This is not the time to be making jokes," she said warningly. She was not in the mood for the whole humor as coping mechanism nonsense. Not today.
"This is the perfect time to be making jokes, Dom." He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. "I've had a good long run, Dom," he said, taking her in his arms. "And I'm not done yet. I'm too flonqing stubborn to give up, you know that. I just need to find different ways to fight my battles."
"But. . ." She swallowed, leaning her head against his chest for a moment, trying to gather her composure again. "Nate, what you're here for. . .your mission. . ." This was absolutely insane. Here she was, encouraging him in all the crap the Askani had laid on him? They were probably skating in Hell at the moment. . .
But she knew how much it meant to him. His 'mission'. She knew how much of his self-worth, how much of HIM was wrapped up in it. . .
He sighed deeply. "Flonq my mission, Dom. I told you. . ."
"No, don't feed me that again. It's unutterably sweet and all, but you can't tell me. . ." She swallowed past a lump in her throat and then looked up at him. "This is what you were meant to do," she said painfully. "Damn it, you gave up EVERYTHING for this. . .you fought and bled and suffered for most of your life, for THIS. And if you can't do it, anymore. . .if you traded any chance you had. . ."
He smiled. "For you," he said gently. His arms tightened around her, holding her close. "I don't regret it, Dom. How many times am I going to have to tell you that before you believe me?"
Her vision blurred with more tears. "Every day," Dom whispered. "Every day for the rest of our lives. And I'm going to hold you to that, you stubborn bastard. . ."
She felt, rather than saw his smile. "I believe you."
"Good. Because I don't make idle threats. . ."
"I know." A chuckle shook his broad shoulders. He leaned against her, accepting her support without a trace of reluctance. "You know, this reminds me of a Sinatra song."
"Oh, God, don't start. . ." she said with a helpless laugh that was half-sob. "Everything reminds you of a Sinatra song. . ."
"At daybreak, I did dream of you. . ." he said softly. "New days. . .not a bad metaphor, really. This is something new for me, and I'm not good with change, Dom. I. . .I need you, to help me through this."
She hugged him tightly. "Whatever you need, Nate," she said hoarsely. "Anything. . ." She swallowed, and then forced a bantering tone back into her voice, trying to cover the awkwardness of the moment. The depth of emotion. "I think I know that song. 'Daybreak', right?"
#I'd offer to sing it for you, but I don't think we want to go there. . .#
"You're damned well right we don't. I've heard you sing." She couldn't hold back the deep, unsteady sigh that followed. "You don't get to do anything stupid like leave me," she said hoarsely. "That clear?"
"Crystal. And I wasn't planning on it."
"Good. Because I'd track you down. And the kids would hold my coat."
A brief caress across the psi-link, like a flicker of sunlight that warmed the cold inside her. #I love you,# he said simply, for the second time in three days.
She decided, blinking back tears, unable to help a smile, that she liked the sound of it.
fin