xp_logs | Scott and Terry, Wednesday late morning

Scott drops by to see how Terry is doing. She's studying but happily gives him some of her time. They discuss the mission, Sean and getting old.

The door to the suite was open, and Scott stuck his head in, seeing Terry sprawled on the couch in the common room, reading some textbook or another. "Hey, there," he said, his smile a bit tired but almost relaxed-looking. "Here I thought I'd find you reviewing last night's adventure obsessively, not studying..."

"That's later. I need to get this econ down while my brain is still fresh," Terry chirped, sitting up. She curled her legs under her and smiled at Scott, noting the exhaustion that had almost become unremarkable so long had it been in his expression. "What can I do for you, Mr. Summers?"

"Just checking on you. I'm a bit anal, remember." He came in, leaning against the wall beside the door. He didn't want to invite himself in for a lengthy conversation if she was studying. "You're all right after yesterday?" Of course she was all right. They'd all been checked out at the infirmary. But still.

"Fit as a fiddle," Terry confirmed and waved him over to the couch. "Come sit. Jubilee's not around anymore so you're not likely to get attacked by sentient laundry." She closed her books and set them aside. No tests today meant that she had some breathing space. "We have to do mission reports, I know. I was hoping to leave that off until after Econ tomorrow though."

"No huge rush. You can certainly wait until after the exam." Scott sat down beside her. "You seem very... content about the whole thing," he said, unable to help a slight smile. "Not too keyed up or disappointed."

Terry smiled at him serenely then her careful reserve cracked and she laughed out loud and threw herself at him, hugging him around the neck. "It was the scariest, funnest, best thing ever!" She sat back, hands flying expressively. "I thought I was going to be sick and then we were fighting and I didn't want to hurt anyone and Mother Mary, I couldn't sleep at all last night!"

Scott's smile grew a little and he hugged her back, carefully. "Okay. So scratch the 'not too keyed up' part."

She grinned sheepishly. "I was trying for responsible and adult like a proper X-man."

"It's actually okay if you are all keyed up - on the inside, at least. You'll learn to handle it, the more often you do this..." Scott let go of her, still smiling. "The excitement never quite goes away."

"I couldn't believe it when you wanted me and Clarice too. I mean, I know it was just because we were affected by the gas but, it was…" Terry shook her head, "I've wanted to do that forever."

"The two of you... you've proven that you can handle yourselves in tough situations before." He wasn't going to tell her how hard a call that had been. How much he'd worried. "The... age limit, for trainees? It makes sense, but there are times... there have been times, before, that the world doesn't really respect that. The only thing that matters is if you're able to handle those occasions when they arise."

Her look was suddenly shy, "And…did I…I mean, we?" Terry thought she'd done well, had thought they'd all done a good job really but Scott was the team leader and…that meant he knew better.

Scott's look was warm, suddenly. "Yeah," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing for a moment, "you did. You really did."

Relief made her laugh giddily. "Thanks. I…thanks. The trainees…they're good. I could tell. I was just trying to not get anyone hurt." Terry sighed contently and leaned back against the couch. "Do you…I know the mission report is supposed to come first but where do you think I need work?"

Scott looked away for a moment, thinking. "The usual," he said finally. "For someone your age, with your level of experience. You need more confidence with your powers. I could tell by the way you spoke at the debriefing that you had nerves - that's actually perfectly normal even for someone with a lot more experience than you. You never lose them entirely. Learning how to manage them is something that comes with time."

Terry nodded. She'd expected far worse. "Nothing for that but more practice, right?" She fidgeted for a moment, wanting to ask if he'd talked to Sean but reluctant to admit how much that approval meant to her. "Did all kids get home?"

"Yeah. Everything's fine with them." He tilted his head at her, trying to figure out... oh. "I figured I'd stop by your father's suite tonight, talk to him about all of this," Scott said more casually. "To tell him how well you did myself."

Terry ducked her head, blushing slightly. "Am I that transparent?" she asked, giving him a half-grin.

"Only because I know you so very, very well." Scott looked away for a minute, his expression unreadable, even a little distant. "I haven't been keeping up with what's been going on with you, otherwise," he said a bit abruptly. "Everything's okay? Exams aren't killing you slowly?"

"Only a little bit of death, I think I'll make it out alive. Unless my last two exams kill me tomorrow, in which case, I place the blame firmly on the college board." She smiled and then sighed, "I've really just been trying to stay busy since I got home. School makes sense, music makes sense." Terry shifted, leaning forward on her elbows. "Other things…they don't make as much sense. Or they don't make the kind of sense I want them to."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Not pushing. But he'd been letting things slide, situations that deserved his attention, and Terry was high on that list.

"I don't know." Her fingers teased a lock of her hair out and brought it to her mouth, chewing on the ends. She'd never managed to break that habit. "I don't know if it's worth talking about. I…there are a lot of terrible decisions I've made and a lot of good decisions and…I guess I'm not sure which are which."

"It's okay not to be able to sort that out just now, you know." Scott gave her shoulder a nudge with his own. "You've had an awful lot going on, and it's not such a bad thing not to come to any conclusions just yet. Like you said... there are things that make sense. Give yourself a bit of a break, let yourself focus on them."

Terry nodded then brightened, "I think I picked which school I want to go to. I mean, Westchester is closer and a little better but I think I'm going to go to Pace. They have a better student to teacher ratio and they're a little smaller."

Scott smiled. "So strange to think of you going off to college," he said, the smile turning almost teasing. "You're making me feel old, you know."

Terry giggled, "You're not old. It takes much longer to get old than it does to grow up. Except for Artie. He's a teenager now and that makes me feel old."

"I feel old. Starting to find the odd gray hair in the mirror," Scott said, running his hand through the aforesaid hair. "I blame you all, of course. Entirely."

Terry sprang to her knees and leaned forward to investigate this obviously crazy claim, "Where? Show me!"

Scott pointed to his left temple, where he had indeed noted a few gray strands that morning. "See? Badge of honor or some such thing," he said, perhaps too flippantly.

Terry rested one hand on his shoulder as she peered at his hair the lifted the other to stroke through it very lightly. "Hmm," she agreed before catching the couple of offending strands of hair and yanking them out. "Aye, these are grey."

Scott yelped, just a little, and then laughed at her. "Theresa Rourke Cassidy, I ought to ground you. Ow."

"But now you don't have any grey! I'm helping!" She beamed at him, "Besides, you can't ground me. That's Sean's job."

"I have a certain amount of ground to stand on, here. I'm still your headmaster. At least for a couple of weeks." Scott rubbed at the side of his head. "Of course, afterwards, I'll be your CO and I can just assign you comms shifts. Just as good as grounding, really."

"Drat, caught on all sides. So what will it be, Mr. Summers? Detention or Comms Shifts?" Terry actually thought the idea of comms shifts sounded fantastic but volunteering for a supposed punishment just meant that they'd find ways to make it worse. She pulled a face, her blue eyes wide and innocent, "I was just trying to help."

"Why don't we figure that out later. Once you've finished your exams - if I remember. I am old, after all."