The Not Knowing Is What Gets You: Part 8
by Alystraea
Rahne woke feeling very battered and bruised. It took her a few minutes to focus and figure out where she was. The back of her hand itched and closer investigation revealed that she had an IV in her right hand. She was feeling rather groggy, but a quick glance around the room told her she was home, back on Muir Island. She managed to wiggle up to a sitting position.
"You shouldn’t get up yet," she glanced over to see Douglock walking towards her. As her head spun slightly she decided he was right. She lay back down, as he came over to stand by the side of the bed. How long had he been standing there?
"Hi there Dougie," she smiled up at him, "This is nae how I imagined I’d come back from my vacation. I hadn’t even bought ye all gifts yet."
"Where’s Lady Moira?" Rahne asked him suddenly anxious to see her mother.
"I think she was making her famous coffee for everyone," Douglock told her. Rahne shook her head hoping her friends wouldn’t all wind up in the med. lab with her.
"Hopefully they’ve heard the tales," Rahne laughed, "Where’s..." She paused. She had been going to ask where Sam was but she wasn’t sure if Doug should be the one to ask.
An odd look passed over Douglock’s face, a sort of sad contemplative look. He stepped to the side and glanced over at the adjacent bed. Rahne followed his gaze and saw Sam curled up in it asleep. He was lying on his right side and she could see the bandages around his left shoulder.
"Moira had to slip him something to make him sleep," Douglock informed her softly, "He didn’t want to rest until he knew you were all right."
An awkward silence fell over them for a moment. Rahne bit her lower lip as she tried to think of something, anything to say.
"Rahne" he said at the same time as she said "Dougie." They laughed for a second before another silence fell over them and this time Douglock broke it.
"Rahne, you’ve been my absolute best friend on this world and I hope you’ll always be."
"Of course I will," she promised him, but he went on with his little speech.
"I don’t think you know how much that friendship has meant to me. I can understand how hard it was for you to form that friendship in the first place. I have so much to thank you for and I don’t think you even realize half of the things you’ve done for me. I don’t think I’d be who I am today if it wasn’t for you." There was a moment of silence where it seemed like he was going to say something very important, but instead, he glanced away from her.
He sighed, "But what I really want to say is that... I want you to know... that all I want is for you to be happy. No matter what." He smiled at her, perhaps a little too widely, but it was genuine. "I should probably go get Moira."
"Doug," she tried to stop him from leaving the room, but he continued to walk away not even glancing back. Rahne sighed loudly and fiddled with the IV cord wondering if there was actually anything left in it.
She glanced over at Sam’s sleeping form. He looked so peaceful all curled up on the bed, a half smile lighting his face as he wandered through his dreams. She took time to study his face without having to worry about any of the embarrassment she might have felt, had he been awake. The years had been good to Sam. He was no longer the boy she had grown up with. So much had happened since then. They had both changed so much. Did they even know each other anymore? She silently chided herself. She figured she would always know Sam, no matter how much had happened.
As though aware of Rahne’s attentions, Sam’s eyes slowly flickered open and Rahne found herself blushing as her eyes met his sleepy ones.
"Rahne," Sam muttered as he sat up slowly to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Aye?" was all she said as she pushed herself up to a sitting position.
"How do you..." he started, but she quietly cut him off.
"I’m fine, are ye..."
"Had worse," he smiled at her. He winced slightly as he moved his injured shoulder. "Uhh, what did Moira give me?"
"Douglock said she gave ye something tae help ye sleep, "Rahne told him. He nodded, rubbing at his eyes. "You know Lady Moira, always doing what she thinks is best for people."
Sam laughed softly before standing. It took him a second before he was able to get his balance. He walked over to take her hand in his.
"Girl, you’d better promise me you’ll never scare me like that again," he gently tightened his grip on her hand careful of the IV.
"I promise Sam." She stared up at him knowing she must be bright red.
"Are you sure you’re all right?" Sam asked again looking her up and down now that he was closer to her.
"I’m fine," she tried to sound reassuring. She reached up with her free hand to gently touch his bandaged shoulder, "What happened?"
"I got too close to a knife," Sam’s joke fell flat.
"Baird?" Rahne asked. Sam nodded. They paused to contemplate each other for a moment. There was a slight bit of tension between them as though they weren’t sure what was going to happen next. Rahne’s gaze fell to the hand holding her’s. She felt Sam’s fingers very gently touching loose strands of her hair. The way her heart was beating she was sure that it was going to come thundering out of her chest.
"Rahne," he muttered again, before leaning his head down close to her’s. It took a moment before Rahne realized what was happening and all she could do was stare at his closed eyes. She hesitantly moved her head towards Sam’s. Her eyes kept flickering open, until she forced them shut. Their lips had just barely touched, when a resounding voice filled the room.
"An’ what do the two of ye think yuir doing up and about like that?" Moira chastised them, as only she could, and they lept apart like guilty school children. Rahne was sure her face was going to burn off.
"Get back in yuir own bed Samuel Guthrie," Moira instructed with a firm pointing of her finger, "An’ if ye dinna mind I’ll do my own examining of the patients here."
Sam managed to mumble out an apology as he quickly moved back to his bed, deciding that it was best not to incur the wraith of Moira especially when in her med. lab.
"So," Moira smiled as she checked the IV, "Did ye have a nice vacation Rahne?"
Rahne sat watching her friends, from a safe distance, as they tried to teach Douglock how to play baseball. The impromptu game had been suggested by Bobby and Tabitha, who had already been bored out of their minds in the lab. For all of its technical advances, they had declared that the island was deprived of decent entertainment. She had used her injuries as an excuse escape being drawn in. In actuality she had just wanted to sit back and burn the image of them into her mind. They would be leaving in the morning. She had no idea when she would see them again.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and watched as Sam tried to instruct Douglock on how to hold the bat. Doug tried to mimic him, but James’ pitch only flew past him. Tabitha yelled out for him to hurry up and hit the ball while Terry tried to encourage him. It was a pleasant scene. Not to bad of a way to say good bye to her friends.
For a minute though, as she stared at her closest friends in the world it was like she could suddenly see them as they had been when they first met. She suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia pass over her. She could see them back at the mansion discussing one of the tedious homework assignments that Professor Xavier would give them, so they could at least pretend that they were normal school students. It was so real that she had to remind herself that years had passed since those days. Dani had been her best friend, her first real friend. And Bobby had always been able to make her smile and to cheer her up. They had grown up together and shared the important moments of their youth. She knew that no one would be able to understand her like they could. Bobby shouted out something to Sam who choose to ignore it.
She turned her attention solely to Sam and watched for a few minutes as he put the bat into Douglock’s hands and was showing him how to swing. Douglock had such a look of intense concentration on his face that Rahne couldn’t help but smile at him. She saw Sam glance her way and he smiled at her before going back to instructing. Sam had been her first crush and people say you never really get over the first one. Sitting back watching him in the lazy afternoon sunlight Rahne could understand part of the reason why. He sure was different from the gangly youth he had been. She had to wonder, what was this now? Was it still a crush? After all the years that had passed, she should have grown out of it, shouldn’t she? She watched as Douglock missed another of James’ pitches and Sam threw the ball back to him. He was laughing at something James had said. He looked so carefree. She wished she knew how he really felt about her.
"Aren’t ye playing?" Rahne glanced up to see Moira walking towards her. She smiled at her mother.
"I just dinna feel like it," Rahne told her glancing over to see Bobby pushing Sam out of the way to take over Doug’s teaching.
"Feel like a walk with me?" Moira asked. She had that tone in her voice that automatically conveyed to Rahne that her mother had something important to say to her. Rahne nodded and got to her feet, brushing off the bits of grass that clung to her.
They walked a few feet in silence. The sounds of the game quieted behind them as they grew closer to the cliffs overlooking the ocean.
"Did ye enjoy yuir vacation Rahne?" Moira asked, but then added, "Well, the parts that were actually a vacation."
"Aye," Rahne laughed, "It was wonderful. I had lots of fun, but I’m glad tae be home now." She smiled warmly at her mother.
"Are ye really?" Moira asked her, "Ye canna really be happy here, I’m afraid ye never really were one for test tubes and computers."
"I’m happy being here with ye mummy," she gave her mother a hug, "I want tae be here with ye."
"Oh Rahne," Moira laughed, "Dearest, ye have yuir own life tae live. I want ye tae go with yuir friends."
"What?" Rahne pulled away from her to stare at her face, "But why? I want tae stay here and help ye."
"I’m not an invalid yet," Moira let out slight glare, "And I’m afraid Douglock is more of a help in the lab than five assistants could be. Besides, I think ye have more than one reason tae go back with them now don't ye?"
Rahne blushed as she caught Moira’s innuendo. "I’m not sure if he..." she trailed off.
"An’ ye’ll never know if ye don’t try," Moira pointed out then sighed, "I can’t order ye tae go or send ye off like I did tae Charles. Yuir not a little girl anymore, and I’m afraid this has tae be yuir choice."
They walked a few more feet and Moira put her arm around Rahne’s shoulders, "Rahne I’m proud of ye, proud of the woman that ye’ve become. Now it’s time ye started thinking about yuir own life and what ye want tae make of it."
Rahne nodded softly. She felt horrible at the thought of leaving Moira when she was so sick, but the idea of being in a team with her friends again was more than enough to make her want to run over and beg them to take her with them. And Moira was right, how else would she ever know how Sam really felt about her.
"Lady Moira," Rahne said softly, changing the subject, "This has been bothering me since the mission."
"What is it?" Moira asked.
"The man who was in charge of the base said he knew ye," Rahne told her, "He kept going on about how evil ye were. Did ye know a man named Gregory Baird?"
Moira was silent for a moment. Her eyes drifted out towards the ocean, she suddenly had such a look of remorse on her face that Rahne wished she hadn’t said anything.
"That would be Gregory Baird, Jr., "Moira corrected her, "And I’m sure he has every reason in the world tae hate me. Proteous killed his father."
Rahne’s eyes widened, "How d’ye know that?" she asked softly.
"D’ye think I don't know the names of every person my son killed?" Moira asked her softly, the pain in her voice was softened by time but it was still easily felt. There was a moment of awkward silence before Moira gave her a warm hug.
"Rahne!" a voice called out and they turned to see Sam running towards them. He smiled at them both, "Rahne, we need someone to umpire. Feel up to it?"
Rahne glanced over at Moira who only urged her away.
"Go have some fun," Moira told her before rounding on Sam, "And ye be careful of that shoulder."
"I will," he promised her before dragging Rahne off by the hand. They were halfway back to the game before Rahne stopped him.
"What?" Sam asked her puzzled.
"Sam," she took a deep breath, "How would ye feel if I returned with ye tae San Francisco?"
"To stay?" he asked cautiously.
Rahne nodded shyly.
"How would I feel?" his face lit up and he reached over to spin her around, but remembering what Moira had said about his shoulder, he settled for a tight hug. "How do you think I would feel?"
"I wasna sure, if you’d want me..." she trailed off and avoided his eyes. She suddenly became very fascinated with her feet. She did have very nice shoes on and anything was better than looking up and into Sam’s deep blue eyes. A hand very gently cupped her chin, and slowly pulled her face up until she had to look him in the eyes.
"Rahne," he said so softly but then let out a half chuckle, "I guess this is the moment where I’m supposed to be romantic and ask you to be my girlfriend."
"Sam," Rahne gasped, not sure if she had actually heard him right, "I..."
"Hey you two," Bobby yelled across the field taking a few steps towards them, "Are you two gonna play or what?"
"Well?" Sam asked her, "Shall we go join our team?"
Rahne smiled warmly at him, "Aye," she told him, knowing that he knew she meant yes to everything.
Author's note:
Wow! Finished at last. I must say it has been an adventure. This story went exactly were I hadn't planed for it to go. I think Sam and Rahne had a little to do with that ^_^ I just want to thank a few people who helped me with the creation of this fic. I want to extand a thank you to Luba and Binkee, who willingly gave this story homes. You helped inspire me to make this story as good as I could. (Also thank you for putting up with me and my periods of writer's block) And I want to thank everyone who took the time to send me feedback. I was overwhelmed by the amount of postive feedback and quick notes to say you simply enjoyed it. Thank you so much. But the person I really need to thank the most is my dear and beloved sister, who willing sat through hours of beta-ing and polishing. You have no idea how grateful I am. Thank you Jen.