xp_logs | Emerald Isle: Terry/Tom

While Sean is realizing that his daughter has run off this his cousin, Terry is...learning that she's been absconded with. She's less than pleased. (Backdated)

They stopped for lunch at a quiet pub. Tom drank a Guinness while Terry pushed chips around her plate, quietly filling him in on her life. The first few years had been a fairly breezy telling but the once she'd reached the subject of Bobby, she'd lost her appetite as well as her enthusiasm. "It's not fair. I love him, I really do. But it just hurts so much to be around him. Like I'm always waiting for something to go wrong and him to go away for good." Terry sighed and glumly ate a chip. "I thought it was better if I left first."

"First loves are a glorious thing, lass," Tom said, looking a bit pensive. "They can be a hard thing, too. I hate to see yeh this unhappy, but the lad sounds like he's got some sorting out of his own to do."

"But what should I do?" Terry asked plaintively, "I don't know if I can forgive him. I want to, because I want him." She bit her lip and shook her head, looking around idly. "That's why we're here. Because I didn't know what to do and...I thought it would be easier at home."

Tom's smile was fond. "Yeh've got yer heart set on this," he suggested. "Yer head's not sure. There's the problem, Terry."

She sighed, "Aye. But I don't know if I should trust my heart." There was a man at the bar staring at them. Terry blinked and scanned the rest of the pub then flicked back to the man. Definitely staring. It jarred her out of her train of thought. "He...um...Are yeh done? It's getting late."

Tom raised his glass, taking a long sip of the Guiness. "Are yeh in any rush, lass?" he countered, a faint twinkle in his eye. "Yeh'll have me thinking yeh've tired of my company."

The man was talking to the barkeep and still looking at them. "It's not that...I've spent the last seven years missing yeh. It's just...we need to go. Now." She grabbed her bag and stood, not questioning the panic that was starting to claw at her stomach. "Please."

"Calmly, lass," Tom said just as casually, laying some money on the table and then rising, putting a fatherly arm around her shoulders and thus ensuring that she could not rush from the pub. "Calmly, and smile."

She hadn't intended to rush. Gamely she summoned up a smile and managed light chatter until they'd made it outside and back to the car when she dropped the act. "Yeh lied to me!"

"Would yeh have come out for a drive with me had yeh known?" Tom countered, still looking amused. "No, yeh'd have called yer father, and then we'd never have had this fine afternoon out. And I never told yeh I'd been paroled, lass."

"I should call him now!" Terry retorted, livid. But she couldn't. She'd left her phone back at school just in case someone tried to call. She hadn't wanted even the temptation. Stupid. "Do yeh know how much trouble I'm like to be in now? That note alone is going to get me yelled at!"

Tom freed one hand from the steering wheel to remove the note from his pocket. "This one?"

She didn't scream. That was a point in her favour as far as she was concerned. Granted it was because she could hardly even breathe but still. "Yeh....how could yeh...Sean'll not know where I've gone! And how am I to explain that I ran off without so much as a word for the day! He'll not be any more forgiving for it. Yeh'll be lucky if..." She stopped, eyes wide, realization setting in. The revelations just kept on coming today. "Yeh don't plan on going back."

"Oh, lass..." Tom dropped the note on the seat between them, still smiling even as he shook his head. "Don't make it sound like I'm kidnapping yeh, now. Would it be such a bad thing for yeh and I to spend some time together?"

"It's a bit late to be asking me that!" Terry sat back in her seat, staring at the roof and fighting equal parts fear and anger. Not fear for herself--it never crossed her mind that Tom might harm her--but fear for him. This was going to make everything so much worse. "We'd best find someplace where we can sort out what to do. And hope that Sean doesn't figure this out too quickly."

"We'll find a place," Tom said almost peaceably, his eyes on the road. "A town or two over, maybe..."

"..right." She was silent for several minutes, letting him drive. She stared at the window, trying to find something she recognized instead of just something she found familiar. "What on earth possessed yeh to come get me? Yeh had to know that it was a terrible risk."

He gave her a sideways look that was almost patient. "Ah, Terry. Do yeh even have to ask that?"

She bit her lip then shrugged and nodded, "Aye. I have to know what yeh want from me." Years ago she'd have never doubted that Tom would always be there, always come for her. But she didn't have quite that free trust anymore.

"That yeh're my girl and I've missed yeh isn't reason enough?"

Terry frowned, "I'm sorry. I guess it is." That still didn't feel right but what could she do? She didn't disbelieve him. "He's not like yeh said." She glanced sideways at him, "Sean, I mean. He's not like yeh told me."

"And it never struck yeh that he's trying to put a good face on things to make up for everything he did and didn't do in the past?" Tom smiled a bit. "Not that it's not a fine goal and all, Terry, but it doesn't change the past now, does it?"

Of course, it had. Sean could have been lying to her. She'd wanted to believe he was. "I don't know." Maybe it didn't. Maybe it did. Maybe it only affected right now. "He's not what I expected at any rate." She brooded out the window. "What's yer plan now?"

"Plan? Why don't yeh and I just find someplace to stay for the night first," Tom said fondly. "Before we feel the need to start making plots."

"Sean's going to have a fit." Terry sighed. She just hoped that he didn't tell the school. This was complicated enough without the X-men getting involved. She really didn't want Tom hurt.