xp_logs | Misery loves company--Terry and Tommy

Terry is having a bad week. With extremely Catholic logic, she decides to visit Tommy in order to make it worse. He thwarts her plan with sympathy but that's okay too.

Terry had planned on trying to distract herself by finding a bad sci-fi film and vegging out in the rec room but a quick check there had shown that she'd be less than welcome. Before Bobby could see her or someone play bouncer, she ducked away again and tried to figure out where she could go that wouldn't risk running into Bobby. After a few minutes thought, she decided to visit Tommy. It was just the kind of abuse she deserved right now plus she hadn't been down since she'd stormed out on him. She stopped to get some of Lorna's cookies then meandered her way down to the medlab.

Taking a deep breath, Tommy set down the hand weights he was using to regain the muscle mass in his arm and sat back in his chair. He couldn't go to gym unsupervised, nor did he want to a risk running into any of the mansion resident freaks. Frustrated at how weak he was, he'd asked for some hand weights to at least get a jump start on his arms. Sighing, he shoved them under his chair where he kept them and prepared to stand to take small steps back to bed.

The door was slightly open but Terry knocked anyway, fidgeting. Rather belatedly she realised that she probably looked like Hell, this week not having been terribly good on the appearance side of things. Oh well, it wasn't as though she was trying to impress Tommy, just use him as an escape.

Tommy was in the middle of standing when she came barging in, startling him and sending him falling back into the chair. He growled at his frustration of being weak and looked to glare daggers at whoever had come in. But when he saw it was Terry, a very dishevelled Terry...his features softened.

She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, missing the look entirely. "I'm sorry, I know I'm bothering you," she apologised breathlessly, staring down at the cookies on the plate. "I just need...I'm not having a very good week and well, you're the only one who hates me for a totally different reason." She peeked up at him, "I brought cookies?"

Tommy raised an eyebrow at her but then shook his head. "Must I tell you again how I don't hate you? But I guess that's not why I have the pleasure of your company." He couldn't help the sneer the last part took. "Why would all the other freaks in this place hate you?"

"They're really good. Lorna made them. Not that you know Lorna because she was gone when you got here..." Ignoring his question was so much easier than answering it. Terry brought the plate to him, "You should really have one. You don't know what you're missing."

"Terry, that doesn't say much. I don't even have any idea what this place looks like outside here and the gym." He looked at the plate of cookies then back up at her. "Answer my question first."

"It's a big mansion. Very pretty, mostly renovated for school use though. The grounds are huge and...you're not going to let me pretend I didn't hear that, are you?" She sighed, "I really don't want to talk about it. Can't you just accept that they hate me?"

"A) No because it's upsetting you and B) No because that's my job." Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. He wished he'd gotten to the bed before she came in as the chair wasn't exactly comfortable but he wasn't about to show his weakness...to anyone.

Terry looked even more miserable than before. She shoved the plate of cookies into his hand and ran her hand through her tangled mass of curls. "Can I sit down?" She looked around. There wasn't anywhere to sit other than the bed since he had the room's only chair. "Oh...uh, nevermind."

Biting his bottom lip, Tommy hung his head a moment, taking a deep breath. "Here," he held up the plate of cookies. "Take these." Once she had them, he lifted slowly off the chair. It took him a few minutes, but he managed to get him himself to the bed and onto it without help. Grimacing, Tommy wouldn't look at her as he spoke. "There."

She'd started to help him but had thought that perhaps he'd be more embarrassed by that than by doing it himself so she just clutched the plate tightly and didn't say a word. Once he was seated, she dragged the chair to his bedside and slumped into it, offering him the plate again. "My boyfriend broke up with me."

With a small sigh, he took one of the cookies, waiting to take a bite before he asked, "Why the hell would anyone give you up? Unless it was life or death of course..." Which it had been from him. Ignoring that small bit of information, he took a bite before adding, "Idiot."

Terry caught a lock of her hair in her fingers and brought it absently to her mouth, nibbling on the end. "Because that's what you do when someone cheats on you. You break up with them because no one wants to date a slut." God, it hurt to say, all the more because it was true.

That just made Tommy frown. "You're not a slut, first and foremost. Damn it, you're the only person I like in this whole damn mansion and I don't associate with sluts." Of course up until lately, he didn't associate with mutants either. Biting his tongue, he added. "Alright, why did you cheat?"

She shrugged. "We were in a hotel room. There was whiskey and strip poker and...it was a mistake. I was trying to distract myself and it worked too well." She rubbed her eyes which were dark and bruised from lack of sleep. "I can't remember much, really."

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "That's it? You played strip poker and drank a little alcohol and your boy friend threw hissy fit?" He couldn't help a disgusted look. "Geez, what kind of boy are you dating? A pussy?"

She glared. "No. Bobby is...possibly just the last honourable guy. He has every right to be upset, he'd never do this to me. And it wasn't just strip poker or a little alcohol. I..." she blushed brilliantly red, unable to really believe she was telling Tommy this, "I woke up naked with a friend that Bobby was already unhappy with."

"But nothing happened. You'd be way more upset if something did." He knew, he'd had experience being the guy girls woke up with. "I still don't see why he felt the need to break up with you. So you made a mistake. You deal and get over it." Tommy shrugged and took another bite of cookie. "Maybe this is telling you that this isn't the guy for you...If he's going to judge you so quickly and all..." Or so he could hope anyway....

Terry gaped at him, not quite understand how he could dismiss this so casually. Of course, it wasn't his problem which probably helped but still... "You mean that if your girlfriend came to you and told you that she'd cheated on you, you'd have no problem with it?"

Tommy shrugged. "My girlfriends were never with me because they liked me. It was a status thing in the FOH. Plus, I slept around on them so it didn't really matter." He then sighed, finishing the treat in his hand. "Plus, I think if the guy cared about you enough, he'd care enough to work it out with you." He shrugged again. "Like I said, maybe he doesn't care enough to work it out..."

"I thought he loved me," she said in a tiny voice. "But I ruined that. How could you sleep with someone you didn't love?" Intellectually, she understood. Emotionally, Terry still didn't understand why she'd been so stupid herself.

"Because it was satisfying? Because for a moment, all that matters is you and that person..." Tommy shrugged again. "Status." It was a stupid reason but then, the people he had slept around with had been idiots themselves. He'd always wished for someone he could care about, with a brain. Like Terry. "Terry, it's obvious he doesn't if he's just going to dump you for one mistake." Taking a chance, he opened his arms. "I know I'm not Bobby...but frankly, you look like shit."

No, he wasn't Bobby. And she still didn't know how she felt about him...or couldn't reconcile that with how she was supposed to feel at least. But he was unconditionally on her side and that made him the first person that she'd actually felt that about so she moved gingerly from the chair to the bed. "Sure and you know how to talk to a girl, TMJ."

Tommy only grinned. "I charmed you once, didn't I TRC?" He wrapped a tentative arm around her waist, not letting himself pine for what wasn't his...hopefully not yet again. Grabbing the plate of cookies, he offered her one. "Here, have a cookie. I hear they are awesome..."

"Aye." But she sighed because that had been before everything and she was pretty sure that she shouldn't be leaning on him right now. She focused on the cookies to distract herself and took one. "Did you like them then?"

"A cookie is a cookie. If I thought I could get cooties from mutants, it really wouldn't be a problem now would it?" He pushed the plate farther toward her. "Plus, I think you need them more then I do at the moment..."

"Food is wasted on you. Lorna's an amazing cook." Terry shook her head at the offer of more though. She needed to eat something healthy today and didn't want to ruin her appetite with cookies. "And you're a bit late for mutant cooties. They come with the X-gene after all."

"Yep, guess I'm infested." Funny, it was easier to kid about it then actually admit he was a mutant. Huh. Maybe this wasn't such a hard thing to get used to after all...

Terry sat up, pulling away from him slightly though she didn't remove his arm from her waist. "It's not such a bad thing, TMJ. Honestly. Not being a mutant or being here at this school. It's not bad. Complicated, to be sure, but most of the time, we're just normal people."

"Normal people who could take a wall out of a building or kill people with a thought..." At the look she gave him, he shrugged. "Sorry, years of mental training. But I don't think I will ever be able to think of fre...mutants as normal."

"Aye, and I didn't think I'd ever want to live in America with all these law-abiding and right minded folk. You learn, TMJ." She smiled, feeling a little less miserable finally. "It's not all destruction, either. That's just what gets attention. Even my powers are good for more than just shouting."

Tommy shook his head. "Maybe...but right now, I'd give anything not to feel this weak..." Once he realized what he said, he stiffened up and put on a defensive air. Tommy Jones didn't let anybody see him when he was weak, and here he had just admitted it.

Terry just glanced at him. "Aye, I know. You're a much better patient than some here though. The doctors must be delighted with you." She reached up and pushed on his shoulder lightly. "You should be resting, tis the best way to get your strength back. I'll even sing you a lullaby." She smiled with sudden mischief. "You've never heard me sing."

Sighing with relief, Tommy let himself relax and lie down under her gentle push. "Yes I did...in the park. When you showed me Faith." Then he gave her his most charming smile. "Not that I wouldn't mind a repeat performance."

"That was nothing." She tried not to blush at his smile. It was extremely strange to have him flirting with her. "It's a pity I don't have my guitar down here. I gave Faith back to Alison." Shifting a bit further up the bed so she could sing more quietly, the last thing she needed was to get in trouble for being here, she braced herself with on hand on his opposite side and smiled, "Have you any requests or shall I sing you what my uncle would sing when I was little?"

"Whatever you think best, oh beautiful Siren..." Tommy laid back and gazed up her, feeling content by having her close.

She laughed, "I've not lured any man to his death yet." Well, probably not. Tom didn't always tell her the outcome of her part in his plans. With a sigh, she chose not the song that Tom sang her, but the sweet melody that she'd heard Sean hum on those rare occasions when they'd not been fighting that year they lived together. She began to sing, trying not to be too obviously about wanting to see Tommy's reaction. She kept it simple, a melody and two harmonies that wove intricately through each other.

Tommy's smile softened, both at the beautiful song and at the obvious talent behind it. Like the girl sitting beside him, the music was beautiful and he couldn't help but curse every god known to man for him letting her go. "Wow."

"Thanks," she said without pausing in her song. "It took a lot of training."

He shook his head in amazement. "I can imagine."

"It's important to learn the control. Just like anything else." She stopped and closed her eyes to concentrate on her singing, this part a bit more complex than the rest.

Not wanting to ruin her concentration he just stayed quiet and watched her, like a vision.

She sang through the rest of the song with her eyes closed, and unbidden came hazy green memories of home. For a moment, she was back at the Keep, among those whose voices lilted in the same fashion as her own. Homesickness, still not banished after all these years, made her choke up and she finished with tears stinging her eyes. She laughed, embarrassed as she opened them again. "Ah, sorry. I'm just a wreck."

"Hey..." Tommy responded softly, reaching up with his good hand to wipe away the few tears that escaped. "That was beautiful...wreck or no." With some effort, he scooted over slightly. "Want to join me in that rest? No one will look for you down here, I can promise you that and you look like you could use it."

Wouldn't that just be perfect? Sleeping here and having to deal with the hue and cry when she was discovered. "I've not been sleeping," she admitted softly. "But I don't know if it's wise to stay. I'm hardly in anyone's good graces as it is." The idea of actual sleep was tempting however and her hesitation was obvious.

"I'm in hardly any position to take advantage and I really doubt you would be found down here. I think this is the last place anyone would look for you. But if you would like..." Tommy bit his lip in concentration then sat up, swinging his legs off the bed.

Terry caught him before he'd got up any more. "No, lie down. Stop. That's...I'm not worried that you'll try something." She sighed and eyed his door, "Will the doctors be coming in anytime soon?"

Tommy shook his head. "I should be alone until dinner time." Carefully he manuevered himself back into the position he had been, laying on the side of the bed with enough room for her.

She bit her lip then carefully lay down beside him, trying to think of him as...well, anyone other than who he really was because who he was had too many emotions and too much history choking it. "I'll stay for a while then. I... I didn't expect to have you be nice...so, thanks."

Tommy closed his eyes. He knew if he told her that he still really liked her, she'd be out the door in a second. And she didn't need that, she needed rest. But this wasn't any easier for him than it was for her. "Shhh...close your eyes and rest." He reached around her to grab his current book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, off his bedside table. Reading would take his mind off her being beside him...slightly anyway. "I'll stay awake just in case. I sleep too much as it is already."

"I...aye. As you say." She gave him a worried look then closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep quickly. Hoping even more that she wouldn't dream when she did.

Sighing, Tommy opened his book and for the next hour or so, made a valiant effort to concentrate on the words...