Another Old Lang Syne: Part 3
by Timesprite
With a muffled groan, Domino rolled over and eyed the bedside clock. Five thirty in the morning. She frowned. Granted, she’d slept most of yesterday, but it was still an ungodly hour to be up... unless you were still up, but that was another matter entirely. With a sigh, she flopped back on her pillow and pulled the covers closer around her. Nate was still out like a light, which really didn’t surprise her. At least one of them was getting some sleep. She lay there for another half an hour before she gave up and climbed out of bed, pulling on one of Nate’s tee-shirts and a pair of shorts before heading downstairs.
“You’re up early,” Jean commented as she wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later.
“Too early,” she murmured as she started up the coffee maker. She searched around for a mug and then took a seat at the table as she waited for it to finish brewing. “Why are you awake?”
“Hrm? I’m just a morning person, I guess.” Jean replied, smiling. “Besides, it’s nice to get some quiet time before Scott and Rachel are awake.”
“Ah.” She eyed the coffee maker again, deciding that there was enough brewed to at least fill her cup.
“So, why are you awake? I take it being up at this time of the morning wasn’t voluntary?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” she muttered, setting the carafe back on the hot plate.
“Does that happen often?”
She arched an eyebrow at the redheaded telepath. “On occasion.”
Jean nodded. “I see.”
“What?” Dom snapped in irritation.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. Nathan just seemed a bit concerned about you, that’s all. I was only wondering if he had just cause. You know, you can talk to Hank, he may be able to help-”
“No. It- it’s just insomnia. Happens on occasion. I’ll get over it.”
Jean sighed and sipped her tea. “It’s your call, of course. I just want you to know that you’re a part of this family, Domino, odd as it is. You don’t have to be a stranger.”
“Um,” she stood there for a moment, looking uncomfortable. “I think I’m going to go run a practice session.” She downed the last of the coffee and left the room.
----
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m putting on my uniform.” She zipped up the blue-black body-suit and grabbed her belt from on the dresser.
“Why? It’s only six thirty. Did something-”
“I’m just going for a workout in the Danger Room. Go back to sleep.”
“I’m awake now. Might as well get up. Want company?”
“I think I just want to fly solo on this one.”
“Are you sure you’re up to that after yesterday?”
“I feel fine. I could use a spotter though, I guess,” she replied, tugging on a glove.
“Okay. Let me get dressed.”
---
Cable glanced up from the observation window as the doors to the booth swished open and Jean walked in. She arched an eyebrow as she glanced at the simulation. Domino was tearing into the robotic adversaries with abandon, leaving nothing but wreckage in her wake.
“Is she trying to prove something?” She asked, settling down into one of the chairs.
“To herself, maybe,” Cable murmured in reply. “Working out frustration, mostly.”
“Working out frustrations,” her eyes skimmed the control panel “on a program meant for three people and with the safeties off. That must be some stress she’s got to get rid of.”
“Jean, I know you don’t approve. But I’m acting as spotter, and Dom can handle herself.”
“I’m just trying to understand her, Nathan. She won’t talk to me.”
“Good luck,” he commented. “There are some days I don’t know what makes her tick. And don’t take it personally. She’s just not much of a people person.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” she replied, taking a sip of her tea.
“She has her own issues to deal with,” he continued, watching the room below as he took a swallow of coffee. “Everyone is looking for her to be a team player, to be something she’s not... is it any wonder she doesn’t like coming here? X-Force knows how she operates, knows her boundaries. But here-” he shook his head.
“She won’t let us get to know her, Nathan. She pushes us all away. With the exception of you and Logan, none of us know a thing about her.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical to expect answers from her when you don’t demand them from your own teammates? I seem to recall that neither Gambit nor Rogue are too fond of divulging information.”
“You’re right,” she sighed. “But I’d like to think that all I’m doing is extending an offer of friendship.”
“And when it comes to Dom, that’s a very difficult thing to earn, Jean. When you live each day expecting to be stabbed in the back,” he said darkly, “you learn very quickly not to trust *anyone.*”
“She trusts you.”
“It took her walking out on me, and three years for me to realize just how significant that was,” he said soberly. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this, Jean. Don’t push her. She’ll share what she wants when she wants, and not a moment before. There’s not a force in the universe that can make Dom do what she doesn’t want to.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” she replied. “Let’s talk about something else, then.”
“Like what?” He asked warily. There was something in her tone that put him on guard. Jean may have been undeniably kind-hearted, but he knew she could also be devious as hell.
“I don’t know. What you’ve been up to, what you’re going to do after you leave here... You don’t call home nearly enough,” she mock-scolded him, a smile on her face.
“There’s really not much to tell,” he replied, glancing back into the Danger Room, noting that the simulation was almost over. “As much as I hate to admit it, X-Force really doesn’t need looking after anymore. They’re pretty good at taking care of themselves.”
“They all stayed in San Francisco?”
“Actually, I think they were heading back with Sam to Kentucky.”
Jean nodded. “So they don’t really need you anymore.”
“They’ve had a lot of experience, and Sam’s a good leader. I think as long as they stayed in contact with you-” he paused as the door slid open and Domino walked in.
“Now that’s what I call a workout,” she commented. “Have to admit I missed practicing in there. Sorry, did I interrupt?” She asked, giving Jean a wary glance.
“I was telling Jean that we thought the kids could probably be trusted on their own.”
Dom nodded. “Well, don’t let me interfere. I’m gonna go shower off. I’ll catch you later, Nate.”
“What are you going to do if you leave the team?” Jean asked after Domino had vanished again. “There’s plenty of room here...”
Cable shook his head. “We’re not X-Men, Jean. You know that. We don’t belong here. Dom mentioned a place she has in Oregon...sounds nice. And we’d still be close enough to keep an eye on X-Force. At least in the beginning.”
Jean nodded slowly. “I see. Just the two of you then?”
“Don’t get any ideas,” he scowled.
“It’s just good-natured meddling,” she replied, patting him on the shoulder as she got up from her seat.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he grumbled.
She laughed and headed for the door. “Well, Charles will be back later this afternoon. You should probably run this by him, see what he thinks.”
Cable nodded. “I’ll do that.”
----
“So what did I walk in on?” Domino asked when he caught up with her back in their room.
“Nothing much,” he replied.
“Really,” she said, eyeing him suspiciously as she dried her hair with a towel.
He sighed. “She just wants to get to know you Dom. She’s not asking you to tell her your life story.”
“Do I need her approval?” She asked icily.
“Oath, Dom. Do you think I care if anyone ‘approves’ of you or not? It doesn’t matter to me what they think. The real question here is does it matter to you?
“No,” she snapped, tossing the towel over her shoulder, where it draped itself neatly over the arm of a chair. “Well, okay, maybe a little. But only so they stop looking at me like I’ve sprouted a third eyeball or something.”
“You’re cute when you’re flustered, you know that, Dom?”
“Shut up, Summers,” she said.
He grinned. “In that case, I guess I shouldn’t mention that I told Jean about moving to Oregon?”
“Oh, great,” she rolled her eyes. “Now they’ll be spreading wild rumors about us.”
“Wild rumors, huh?” He asked, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Well, if they’re going to do that anyway, we might as well give them good reason.”
----
The door to Xavier’s office was partially open, but he rapped twice anyway before sticking his head in the doorway. “Charles?”
“Come in, Nathan. Jean mentioned there was something you wanted to discus?”
“About X-Force, yes.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve given it some consideration, and I think it’s time to let them work on their own. They’ve more than proven their independence-”
“They’re still children, Nathan.”
Cable frowned. “No, they’re young adults. There’s a difference. And they’ll never learn anything if I’m there holding their hands the entire way.”
“The sink or swim method of learning then?”
“Not hardly. Domino and I will still have some involvement. And they know they can come to us for help on anything. But there’s a difference between keeping a watchful eye on them and keeping them under our thumb. I think they’ve earned this.”
“No ulterior motives?” Xavier asked.
Cable paced the length of the room and ran a hand back through his hair. “I’ve been a soldier for a very long time,” he said finally. “I’ve given up all there was to give, and for the first time, I have a chance to get some of it back. Is it wrong that I should want to take that opportunity?”
“Not at all,” the Professor replied. “It’s your right. Very well, I think the idea is a fairly sound one. I take it you’ll run it past X-Force and relay their reactions to me?”
“Of course.”
----
“How’d it go?” Dom asked, leaning against the wall outside the office.
“You could have come in.”
“You don’t need me to argue your points for you. So?” She asked again, taking up stride next to him as he headed down the hall.
“He agreed.”
“Just like that?”
“Pretty much. Seemed satisfied that we’d be around to handle anything that got to be too much for them.”
“Huh. Never thought it’d be that easy.”
“I think,” Cable said, “we had a sort of understanding.”
“Hrm. I’ll take your word for it. I never claimed to understand how these people operate anyway.”