Scott and Alex and a phone call, Wednesday

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Deborah, like most grandmothers, is shamelessly manipulative, and Scott finds himself calling his brother whether he thinks it's a good idea or not. Alex is shocked to hear about everything that's been happening. The two manage to mend fences in the process. Deborah is pleased.


Scott settled himself into what Phillip had once referred to as the "swallow you whole" armchair, and not entirely jokingly. It was comfortable, though, and gave a very nice view of the woods and the mountains. A good place to relax.

Except he wasn't exactly going to be doing that, was he? Scott eyed the cordless phone in his hand. He'd succumbed to Deborah's urgings, but he wasn't sure this was a good time to be doing this. Calling his brother. He was still so frayed, and the last thing he wanted was to make things worse. But Deborah had all but slapped him across the back of the head when she'd found out that Alex didn't even know Jean had left, let alone any of the rest of what had happened.

Scott dialed the number, taking a slightly shaky breath as he raised the phone to his ear.

It rang twice before someone answered. "Hello?"

It wasn't Alex. "Jared?" Scott ventured, hesitantly.

"Aloha, Scott." Jared said cheerfully. He had already moved out of the living room where he and Alex had been doing homework to talk in private under the guise of taking Crush out to go to the bathroom. He took a moment to stand in the sand, listening to the breeze and the waves while watching to make sure Crush didn't go far. "I'm screening Alex's calls for him. What's up?"

Scott smiled a bit faintly. Good of Jared, to do that. "Oh... stuff's been happening," he said with a sigh. "I'm at Phillip and Deborah's, and she suggested very strongly that I needed to call and tell Alex. They're fine," he added swiftly, realizing how that could be taken. "Nothing's wrong in Anchorage."

Jared nodded slightly, grinning, glad Scott understood. He was trying to take care of Alex and that was easier when people accepted that. "That's good to hear. You don't sound too well yourself though, bro... and I warn you, Alex will be hostile. He still isn't too keen on either you or Lorna." The Hawaiian bit his lip. "But if it's serious enough, I'll give him to ya and try to convince him not to hang up. But it had better be important yeah?"

"I'm not calling to argue with him, Jared, I promise. And yeah..." Scott couldn't keep the depressed edge out of his voice. "It's important."

"I'm just looking out for him. He won't let anyone else." And Jared mentally thought he hoped Scott had someone taking care of him. "Okay. Give me a sec." Calling for Crush, Jared went back inside the apartment and into the living room.

Scott took another shaky breath, slouching a little further into the enormous armchair. Deborah poked her head into the living room, and he tried to muster up a reassuring smile. She nodded, as if in approval, and disappeared again. Probably back into the kitchen to make lunch. She'd informed him as soon as he'd walked off the plane that he was "entirely too thin, Scott, this is ridiculous."

Taking a deep breath, Jared walked in and retook his seat on the couch next to Alex who has his nose buried in a geology book. "Yo Alex, I think you better take this one?"

Alex looked up with a small frown, seeing his cellphone open in Jared's hand. "The only reason you would have answered it is if it were my brother or Lorna, so no, I won't take it." Then he looked down back at his book, jotting down notes in a notebook.

Jared took another deep breath. "Dude, it's your brother and he sounds really upset and he promises he's not calling to argue with you. I really think its important, bro." He shoved the phone in Alex's line of sight. "Come on man, talk to him."

Looking up, Alex glared at Jared before taking the phone. "I blame you if I end up failing that geology test tomorrow… " He stood up and went into the bedroom, Crush following on his heels. "This had better be important." Alex didn't even try to hide his distaste in his voice.

Scott winced, and for a moment, seriously considered apologizing and just hanging up. He was so tired. A night's solid sleep had just hammered home how little energy he had.

But that would be the cowardly thing to do. And Deborah would berate me. "Hey," he said a bit faintly. "I... well, I'm in Alaska, and Deborah told me off about not having called you to tell you about what's been going on. It's..." He was going to say it. Only fair to give Alex the option. "It's okay if you don't want to hear it. Deborah and Phillip are fine, there's nothing wrong here..."

Alex frowned. He was in Alaska... that wasn't good. "Alright, I'm listening, bro. What's going on?"

A quiet, hurt-sounding laugh slipped out before Scott could stop it. "It's kind of ironic, actually. Jean left me."

Alex just sat there on the bed, Crush licking at his hand for attention as he stared out into space, not believing what he was hearing. "Jean...left you?" he asked in disbelief. "Why?"

"... you know, I actually called you and forgot for a moment that it would entail going through it." He was trying to make it sound like a joke. It wasn't working very well. "Or maybe I just blocked it out. It's... it's so complicated, Alex, everything that's happened..." He stopped, took a deep breath. "But you asked why, not 'what else has happened'. She told me I was... self-absorbed, and obsessive, and too broken. And that she'd been staying with me out of pity since Seattle."

It took Alex a bit to answer, as he was in total shock. "Scott...I...I'm so sorry. I...I don't know what else to say, I...well while you mentioned it, what else happened?"

"Well." Scott rubbed at his jaw. He really did need to shave, he thought dimly. "I crashed my car, the week she left... was coming home from DC after talking to her and ran off the road. Totaled it. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself." His mind skirted away from the mental image of that wreck in the garage. "Then, I was kind of starting to pull myself together when she sent me a tape of her having sex with one of my teammates." He gave another one of those hurt little laughs. "There's more irony for you. I fight with you over a group of people, one of whom can turn around and do something like this to me."

Alex didn't answer, and Scott went on, determined to get the rest of it out. "And then this last weekend, I went out for a drive and wound up getting jumped by a telepath. Whoever it was hacked the memory of the evening out of my mind and replaced it with something else." It felt like there was an iron band closing around his chest. He wasn't going to mention some of the details of that. "So, huge security breach, on top of everything else. I woke up the next morning in an alley with the worst headache in history, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. I had to get out."

A few more minutes of stunned silence came over the line untill Alex cleared his throat. "I...god Scott. I'm sorry...so Sorry. How are you doing? I'm mean seriously, don't kid with me here..." He didn't add he knew how it felt to have your heart ripped out and stepped on, because at least Lorna hadn't put him through this.

"Lousy? Pretty damned pitiful, for calling you like this, now..." His throat was closing up, but he forced the words out. "This is so damned selfish of me. In my d-defense, Lorna arrived the same week Jean left, but that's not much of an excuse. I'm just so sorry, Alex," he said more brokenly. "It was so stupid, all of it... and it's the same sort of thing, you know? I drove her away because I was inflexible and obsessive, and I was doing the same thing with you..."

"Hey!" Alex said sharply, not liking where this was going. "Don't do that." Normally, Alex wouldn't have given up this argument without gloating alittle but the circumstances were not exactly ideal. "Scott...don't please. I'm the least of your worries."

Scott tried to slow his breathing down, calm himself. It wasn't working all that well. "No, you're not. You're really not. But at least... at least you're talking to me." His eye was blurring and he rubbed at it with the back of his hand. "I don't know what I did to deserve that, but I don't know what I would have done if you'd hung up on me. I look back on the last month and I can't figure out what happened to my life, Alex..." His voice broke again. "All I can think of is that it's happening again, and it's worse this time, because I can't even bury myself in the team."

"If I had answered instead of Jared I would have." Alex admitted bashfully, biting his lip. "It's why he had my phone in the first place. And some things are too important to let petty difference and stupid arguments get in the way. As much as I may not not act like it...you are that important, bro." He sighed and fell back on the bed, so he was staring at the ceiling. "Has anybody been taking care of you? I don't know how I would have survived without Jared here..."

"Ororo and Alison are covering for me at the mansion. Deborah's being... Grandmotherzilla, I guess." Damn it, he had to pull himself together. Scott ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I trashed my suite," he said a bit forlornly. "When I saw the tape. Just... snapped, and wrecked just about everything except Horatio's tank."

"I wouldn't leave the beach for two days, unitll Jared and Vida dragged me inside and forcefed me food made by one of Lorna's friends." Alex commiserated, then bit the inside of his cheek. "You could come here for a while. Maybe some sun and sand would do you good." And I can take care of you for a while...

"I wish..." He remembered how beautiful it had been, from his first trip out there with Alex. "I really wish I could. Just... you and me and none of the rest of this crap." His voice wobbled.

"Well there would be crap, I do still have class..." Alex joked lamely. "Come on man... you're in no condition to do anything at the mansion anyway. Come have some fun, even for just a day or two..."

"I don't know if I can handle another flight," Scott confessed after a moment, reluctantly. He hadn't wanted Alex to know just how run down he was physically, too, but that was a dead giveaway.

Alex bit his lip and nodded, hearing in Scott's voice how tired he was. "No worries bro. I'll be here all summer too...maybe then yeah?"

"Or spring break maybe?" I can make it to spring break. Surely. "I don't know how I'm going to make myself go back, you know," Scott heard himself say, his voice sounding hollow. "I told myself I would, in a week..."

"Spring Break was last week dude." Alex said softly. "You don't have to go back, ya know? They can survive without you... and I think you need to be away from there. Trust me, I know the feeling."

"I know you do..." Scott closed his eyes, wincing at the way his stomach twisted. Damn it, he wished it would stop that. "I think... I think Deborah and Phillip would agree with you," he said, his voice tight with pain. "I thought about it, you know, when I woke up this morning. About staying. Phillip keeps telling me I need to get recertified so I can fly again..."

Alex nodded, even if Scott couldn't see him. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Let Grandma and Grandpa spoil you a bit. If it's one thing I'm learning...it's okay to let others take care of you when you're down..."

"You're doing better than I am, then. I still feel like I'm running away." Scott swallowed, rubbing at his eye. "You're... how are you doing?"

"It helps I live half way around the world...I don't have to go back." Alex winced at the phrase running away... he was the brother that was good at that. "I'm living. Just occupying myself with studying and surfing. And..." his voice got softer. "I might start dating again soon." He thought about Vida and couldn't help a small smile.

Scott slumped farther into the chair, closing his eyes. "I'm glad. I'm glad you're doing all right." He sounded like an overtired kid, he really did. "It's good to think of you out there doing what you love..."

Alex didn't mind, he knew exactly how Scott felt. "Yeah...And I think you deserve the same. Take Grandpa up on his offer bro. Learn to fly again."

Oh, he was not going to break down on the phone, again. He wasn't. Scott nearly jumped out of his skin as a hand came down gently on his arm - Deborah, standing there beside the chair and extending her other hand for the phone.

"Lunch is ready," she said softly. "You go eat, Scott. My turn to talk to my other grandson."

Scott swallowed. "Deborah wants to talk to you," he said to Alex. "I'll... I'll call again tomorrow, maybe?" He tried to smile. "I've got to be more together after another night of sleep."

"Alright." He paused then added quickly, "And Scott? I've seen you run around naked in the backyard and cry when Dad made you put clothes on. You really don't have to keep it together with me, bro... really. But yeah, call tomorrow."

"Later, then," Scott said unsteadily and handed the phone over to Deborah, hauling himself up out of the chair and making his way out of the room and towards the kitchen.

Deborah sank down where he'd been sitting with a sigh. "Hello, sweetie," she said, warmly but a bit wistfully. "I wanted the two of you talking again, but really, the circumstances could have been a lot better..."

Alex smiled a bit. "Hey Grandma. And yeah, I agree with you there..."

"Now," she said, "if I could only arrange to have both of you here where I could look after the pair of you... you got my latest care package, I'm assuming?"

"I would love to Grandma, but I think my professors would take offense if I miss more class. I think they are starting to believe I don't like them." He kidded softly. "And yes, it was wonderful. Jared wanted me to thank you for the macadamia nut cookies. He said they were the best he'd ever had."

"Jared is a young man of impeccable taste," Deborah said firmly. "You tell him there'll be two dozen in the next package." She was quiet for a moment, staring in the direction Scott had gone. "I wish I could talk your brother into going to visit you. There are a few too many memories for him here."

"Yes but what he loves is there too. He can't fly here and I don't think I would have been able to get my mind off of the whole thing without surfing." Alex said softly, raising a hand to rub his temples. "Maybe later. I'm not going back to New York anytime soon so he has plenty of time to visit."

"Your grandfather's planning to take him out to the airfield and lock him in the hangar, once he's feeling more rested," Deborah said fondly. "Phillip's not going to rush him when it comes to getting back in the air, but that devious man I married is not beyond small steps. Working on the planes might be a start, and we all know he enjoys that." She paused for a moment. "We'll look after him, Alex. I don't want you to worry too much. At least the two of you are talking now... and I am very proud of you, you know."

"Good for Grandpa." But the last made him pause... "Proud of me?"

"Proud of you. Not surprised, but very proud." She didn't elaborate, merely sighed softly. "I love you both so much. It breaks my heart to see the two of you unhappy."

Alex was confused but realized she didn't want to elaborate. "I love you too, Grandma. And worry about Scott, not me... I have people to help me. Scott only lets very few people close... I'd say take care of him but I know you will."

"I may resort to stealing his airline tickets for the flight back," Deborah said briskly. "Depends on how the week goes. You take care, Alex. I need to go make sure your brother doesn't just push his food around the plate and then wander off again." She chuckled softly. "And check your mail in a few days. I believe another care package is in order."

"All right Grandma. Say hi to Grandpa for me?"

"Will do. Love you."