xp_logs | Log: Janice and Alex, Alex and Scott (Reply)

After a month without hearing from her daughter, Janice calls to check up on her. A short chat with Alex brings some very unwelcome news. After hanging up with Janice, Alex calls his brother to find out if the mansion knows anything.

It took Alex a moment to figure out what that buzzing was. He looked up from the Physics text open on his desk and looked around confused for a second. Then he saw his phone shaking on the edge of desk and quickly caught it before it fell off the desk. He took a quick look at the screen to see who it was. He did small double take before opening it as he saw who it was. What's Mrs. Dane calling me for?

"Alex, sweetie?" Janice said cheerfully at the sound of his bewildered hello. "Hi, it's Lorna's mom. How are you doing?" Janice liked her daughter's boyfriend and wanted to catch up with him a bit. Her question could wait until she determined how he was settling in.

Alex couldn't help but smile slightly. "Hey Mrs. Dane. I'm doing alright, how about yourselves?"

"Oh, we're just the same. Paul has been working all the time on some project and I've got a fundraiser that the ladies at the club and I are organising for hurricane relief. It's such a good thing that the damage wasn't worse, you know. They were saying the levees could have broken and destroyed the city." Janice shook her head and sighed, "It's just lucky. But I wanted to know how things are with you? How are your classes? Are you enjoying them?"

He put down the pen he'd been using to outline the Physics chapter in a notebook done and leaned back in his chair. "They're alright, just a lot of boring 101 classes really. Can't wait until I get to the more advanced stuff though. Thankfully, a few of the guys I surf with are also in my major so we study together." He didn't mind the small talk really but he was curious as to why she was calling.

"Have you been surfing much? I thought you must be busy considering we hadn't heard from you at all." Janice laughed indulgently, "Though I know that calling home isn't a huge priority right when you start classes."

Now Alex had to smile, when she talked about California being home for him as well. He thanked god that Lorna's parents welcomed him. "Yeah well, I have to do something to let out the stress and I don't have Shiro to beat on anymore."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. I hope you're planning to come home for Thanksgiving at least. Or maybe I'll talk Paul into visiting you out there." Janice sipped her coffee and made a note to do exactly that. "Anyway, sweetie, I was just checking in. Lorna's usually so good about calling every week that I was becoming a bit concerned when we hadn't heard from you two. Is something wrong with her phone? We got a message that it had been turned off last time we tried to call."

Alex had been so wrapped in the warm feeling caused be the Thanksgiving comment that he almost missed the second. "Checking in with us? But...Lorna's not here remember? She's still in California with Cammy." Maybe Mrs. Dane just forgot, but Alex was still confused.

Janice was just as confused, "With Cammy? Why on earth would she be with Cammy? Did she fly back?" It was totally unlike Lorna to have not dropped by. "When did she leave?"

"She never got to Hawaii...she was stopped by a friend in the airport and then she got the call from Cammy and stayed...I...I thought you knew. I mean I've been getting...calls..." Then things began to click in Alex's head. "Something's wrong..."

Janice's heart seemed to stop as what Alex was saying started to penetrate, "Alex, I just saw Cammy the other day. Lorna hasn't been here. We thought she was with you. Could she be back at the mansion?" But that didn't make sense. Why would Lorna say she was anywhere except where she really was?

Alex shook his head. "She's not at the mansion, I've been in contact with Shiro and Scott and both confirmed she wasn't there." His voice sounded breathless as he realized what he was saying. No one knew where Lorna was and she'd been lying the whole time. What's going on!?

"Could this...is this one of those...school things?" Janice didn't know exactly what Lorna did at that school that had had her daughter broken and strangely silent on many occasions but accepted her explanation that it was important. "Can you find out?"

That couldn't be it. Scott would have told him...right? "I...I don't think it is but I'll ask my brother. I mean, every time she called me she said she was with Cammy. Why would she say that if she was on mission?"

"Will you let me know? This isn't like her. I'm sure there must be some explanation." Janice said, taking a deep breath. "There must be."

Alex closed his eyes and rubbed his temples where a head ache was starting to form. "I will Mrs. Dane, I promise. I'm curious as to what is going on myself..."

"Right. Yes..." Janice took another deep breath and let it out slowly, "I'll just...go now. Please call me when you find out what's going on, won't you? I'll call Cammy and see if she's heard from Lorna at all."

"I will Mrs. Dane. I...I'm sorry." He didn't know why he was apologizing, but it felt like the thing to do at the moment.

Janice shook her head, "It's not your fault, Alex. I should have called earlier. God, it's been a month. She could be anywhere." Panic crept into her voice before she clamped down on it, "If you need anything. Anything at all, just call us. You can come home or we'll come there if you need us. Okay?"

Alex nodded even though she couldn't see him. "Thanks Mrs. Dane. I...I might just take you up on that. In fact, you might want to come here, the vacation settings might do you guys good while we figure this out..."

"I'll be out there as soon as I can," Janice said without hesitation. There wasn't anything in the world that would keep her from taking care of him for Lorna. "Do you have the keys to the apartment?"

"Yeah, I think so." Alex reached over to grab Lorna's purse where it hung off his loft. He dug through it for a minute before producing the apartment keys. "Yeah, I got them."

"All right. I'll call you as soon as I know what's going on." She sighed, "I should go now. Alex...I'm sure she's okay. You said she's called you so she must be okay."

His eyes were closed now and he was ignoring the looks Jared was giving him from where he was perched on the edge of his upper bunk. "Yeah, I'm sure she's okay, I'll see you later Mrs. Dane."

"Good bye, Alex. Call me if you need anything or just if you want to talk. I'll see you soon." Janice swallowed hard and closed her phone.

Alex just let the phone fall to his desk, followed by his head. "Hey man, you..." Jared didn't get to finish since Alex had held up a hand indicating he really didn't want to talk about it right then.

After a few moments of silence and odd looks from Jared, Alex picked up his phone and moved out into the hallway. Going into the nearby stairwell of his dorm, he took a deep breath then dialled Scott's number as he sat down on a stair.

Scott was in his office reviewing some footage from the Danger Room when the phone rang. He picked it up absently. "Hello?"

Alex closed his eyes as he rubbed his temple with his free hand. "Hey Scott...got a minute? I got something important I have to ask..."

Scott frowned and froze the playback, saving the file. "Sure, shoot. What's up?"

"Is Lorna on an X-man mission by any chance?" He bit his lips, no even trying to decide what he wanted the answer to be.

Scott's frown deepened. "Alex? Firstly, no, and secondly, why are you asking me this? I thought Lorna was with her cousin?"

"That's just it. She's not." He sighed deeply, his hand rubbing harder on his temples. "I just got a call from Mrs. Dane. Apparently, when Lorna was calling me to say she was in California, she was calling and telling her parents she was here with me. She hadn't called in a while so Mrs. Dane called to see if everything was alright...." As he said it, his heart sank lower and lower into his chest.

Scott blinked. And then blinked again, processing the situation. Oh, not good. Very much not good. Lorna had been worried about going to college, he knew that, but either this was the most spectacular and twisted case of cold feet ever or there was something more complex here. "She's definitely not with her cousin?"

Alex shook his head, as showed in the inflection of his voice. "No, Mrs. Dane saw Cammy just the other day and apparently she had seen Lorna in ages. She was never with Cammy. We hoped maybe this was X-man related...a far-fetched hope but ...I had to have something." He was increasing growing very tired, despite it being the middle of the after noon.

: "It's not, Alex." Scott's mind was already going a mile a minute. "Look, the next time she gets in touch with you, try to get some details out of her as to where she is? I'll see what I can do from here."

"Okay." His voice was getting strangled now, as his one hope was extinguished, Where could she be?! And why!? "Sorry this wasn't a normal 'Hey how ya doin?' call..."

"Alex? Whatever's going on, we'll sort it out," Scott said, quietly but firmly. "I don't know why she's doing this, but if she's able to make the phone calls she's got to be..." Not okay. "This is not the worst-case scenario," he said instead. "Not by far. We'll find her, and figure it out."

"Yeah...I know, I just worry too much, you know that." Alex sighed and just let his head rest on his hand. "Keep me updated okay?"

"Of course. Try not to worry too much, Alex," Scott said. "I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah okay...Thanks Scott. Love you bro."