Wednesday, Lorna and Bobby

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

Midmorning, Bobby stops by to see Lorna and get some advice and comfort. Lorna is deeply unimpressed but not unsympathetic.
(Backdated because I'm incapable of posting things on time)




After seeing Terry off to class, Bobby had gone running, but found the solitude and the lack of keeping food down the day before combined to put an end to that activity much sooner than he'd planned. After a quick shower he glanced at the clock--Terry would be in classes for hours yet.

He looked around his room, feeling restless and as always, guilty. After a few minutes' thought, he headed out of his room and down to the suite Lorna was staying in. He stood outside for a minute, debating whether to knock, whether she'd know already, whether she hated him already--but at the sound of male voices coming down the hall, he grabbed the doorknob and ducked inside, instead. Some X-Man, he chided himself, listening at the door to see if he could identify who was walking past. Part of him was sure it was Scott, no matter how unlikely his rational mind told him that was.

Lorna walked out of the bedroom, toweling her hair dry and stopped dead when she realized someone else was in the room. Yanking the towel off her head, she stared at Bobby for a second, taking in his presence and the way he was listening at the door then narrowed her eyes. She wanted to talk to him anyway. "Are they gone?" she asked quietly.

Despite her soft tone, Bobby jumped nearly a foot, almost smacking his head against the door as he looked at her, eyes wide. "Uh. I, uh...was gonna knock," he stammered, heart pounding in his throat. He slumped against the door, taking a deep breath. Geez, on edge much? That's what happened when you committed adultery and lived with the victim, maybe.

Lorna half-turned and threw the towel back toward the bathroom then crossed her arms. "And you didn't because there was a guard patrol coming and they'd have dragged you back to lock-up if you were caught?"

"No," Bobby replied, managing a small amount of scorn, now that the panic was fading a bit. He crossed his arms, staring at the floor and scowling almost obstinately. Go on, I dare you to hate me. "I thought it might be Scott."

Lorna raised an eyebrow at him, "Scott is still locked in his room. I put the door back myself. Are you here just to be in a mood at me or did you want something?" She glanced at the clock. She should start lunch soonish.

Bobby winced and shook his head, his arms falling to his sides. "I just...I don't know why I'm here," he mumbled. "Sorry." He grabbed for the doorknob, taking one last calming breath. He'd go back to his room and feel restless some more. Lorna hadn't stabbed him yet, so she hadn't heard yet, and there was no need to drag her into it in that case.

The handle refused to move. "You look like hell, Bobby and you just hid in my room rather than run into people in the hallway. How about not trying to run off just yet?" She waved a hand at the couch, "Come talk to me. Tell me about your part in what's going on around here."

Denied escape, Bobby sighed and pushed away from the door, moving to the couch. "I--" He looked up at Lorna bleakly. "I slept with Jean Grey," he whispered. Just speaking the words sent a shiver through him and he hugged his stomach miserably.

Lorna ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "Yeah, I know. I've been doing care and feeding for Scott. What the hell were you thinking? And can I say I'm really hoping the answer has something to do with copious amounts of mind-altering substances?" She paced across the room but didn't sit, hands on her hips.

Bobby shook his head, staring at his feet. "Unless you consider a massage a mind-altering substance." He sighed heavily. "I wasn't thinking, Lorna. It was all so..." He shrugged. "It's kind of a blur, really."

Lorna threw up her hands, "Well, it's obvious you weren't thinking. What happened anyway? What kind of massage are we talking?" She held up a warning hand, "Do not feel free to go into detail, just give me the basics."

Bobby's cheeks colored briefly at the rejoinder. "I didn't plan to," he mumbled, curling up in one corner of the couch. "Okay...so I ran into Jean while I was visiting my parents. She called me up last week and asked if I was still in Boston, and if I wanted to have dinner, just chat and catch up and stuff." Which had seemed pretty harmless. "She told me where she was staying and said to just meet her at her hotel room, in case she was running late. So I get there, and she..." He took a shaky breath. "She was wearing this dress...if you could call it that." He paused and ran his hand through his hair.

Lorna blinked, getting an instant picture of it meant when he said 'dress' in that way. "Whoa, wait, she was wearing what?" She frowned, "Had she said or done anything earlier to make you think this was a date and not a friendly dinner?" Maybe he'd misread the signals.

"No!" Bobby shot her a frustrated look. "Why in the world would Jean want a date?" He curled up tighter, hugging his knees to his chest. "She said she wasn't that hungry, and would I mind just staying in the room and catching up. I was...kinda distracted, by then, but I didn't see anything wrong with it. I mean, it was Jean." A shiver ran through him and his voice dropped, quiet and pained. "She started talking about Terry. About running into her, about the baby..." He closed his eyes and continued. "And then she apologized and said I was too tense, and started rubbing my shoulders."

"What baby?" Was Jean pregnant? Was Terry pregnant? Why was the world crazy?

Oh. Right. "Uh...Terry thought we-she was pregnant. Turned out to be a false alarm." And the words still twisted like a knife in him, dulled a bit by the last month, but still there.

"…you're joking." Lorna rubbed her temple. This was a bad time to get distracted. Better just move on. "Okay, fine, whatever. So Jean was talking about Terry and giving you a shoulder rub. Just shoulders?" Shoulder rubs could be platonic. Or they could very much not be. But why would Jean be giving non-platonic shoulder rubs to Bobby?

That was the million-dollar question, wasn't it? "Uh...shoulders, back, neck..." And this is where things started to get dodgy. "At first. Then she started..." He shook his head, because that was details, and he wanted to give them no more than she wanted to hear them. "That's when things changed. I-I kind of tried to stop her...at first," he said in a whisper. Hadn't tried too hard, though, had he? Hadn't even moved off of the fucking bed.

Okay, so this had been Jean's idea. Which was wrong on so many levels but at least Bobby hadn't been a complete sleaze. Just enough of one to sleep with his friend's wife. "So what was with the tape? When that sound like a good idea?"

"About the twelfth of never," Bobby replied with a scowl. He regretted every second of it, why the hell would he have wanted it recorded? "I found out about the tape yesterday, along with everyone else."

"Christ, you didn't know? Seriously, Bobby, did Jean seem like she'd lost her mind? Are you absolutely certain it was her?" Lorna would freely admit that she was overly paranoid about that particular hurtle but, hell, maybe Jean had had some kind of psychotic break or something. "So you slept with her…why? Why not just walk away when it was obvious what she wanted?" Lorna gave up her stern looming and flopped on the couch next to him, eyebrows raised.

"She seemed...I dunno. A little different, but not insane, or anything...nothing really alarming, just more...I dunno. Aggressive?" Boy, had she ever been aggressive. Bobby blushed again, closing his eyes. "It was like I was two people, Lorna. Part of me wanted to leave, tried to leave...but it felt so good to be touched, to be k-kissed..." His voice trailed off and he clenched his jaw as tears stung his eyes.

Lorna covered her face with her hand and sighed deeply then reached over and slapped Bobby up the backside of the head. "You idiot, next time listen to the part of you that knows you're being set up. Boys are so stupid." She rolled her eyes, "Okay, so she manipulated you into it. Well, that's better than you two working together to hurt Scott though I don't blame him for wanting to put you through a wall right now. Have you told Terry yet?"

"No!" Bobby cringed, rubbing the heels of his palms against his eyes. "I can't tell her. I can't lose her right now, she's all I have..."

"Oh God." She had to resist the urge to hit him again and reminded herself that he obviously felt terrible about all this. "Bobby, what if she finds out from someone else? Terry really will put you through a wall. And then Sean will. You need to be working on minimizing the effects of your lapse of brain functions not making them worse."

"It doesn't matter if she finds out from me or someone else, Lorna...when she finds out, I'll lose her." Bobby tried to make her understand. He knew what he was doing. "This way, I get to keep her for one more day...and then maybe one more..." He abruptly looked away from her, trembling faintly.

Lorna sighed and moved over to wrap her arm around his shoulders. She couldn't blame him for being scared. "Could you...what if she didn't find out? Could you live with that? With you knowing that she didn't know?" It had been one of the breaking points for her. The lies that seemed to pile up between her and Alex simply because she couldn't bear to destroy his faith in her.

Bobby whimpered and shook his head. No, he wasn't stupid enough to think this was a long term solution. "I'll tell her eventually, Lorna. I just--I can't. I need her..." His voice wavered and he threw his arms around her neck, clinging suddenly.

"Bobby..." Lorna shook her head and rubbed his back. "You've made quite a mess of this, haven't you?"

That was an understatement if ever Bobby'd heard one. "I just wanted to see Jean," he said in a small voice.

"For the record? Seeing someone doesn't require sleeping with them. Just so you know." Lorna hugged him, sympathetic because he was clearly miserable. There wasn't much that she could say that would be comforting so she settled for an old standby instead. "I need to make lunch for Scott and David. You can help."

"I know that," Bobby whined, clinging for a fewo more seconds before pulling back with a resolved nod. He didn't want to look at food right then, but for Lorna, he'd help. And for Scott. Hell, for David for that matter. "Okay."

She stood then pulled him to his feet. "Well then you should have said no with a little more conviction, shouldn't you? Don't get me wrong, I think this is mostly Jean's fault and she needs to be punched in the face for it." Lorna tapped her lips thoughtfully, "I think I'll make chicken."