Saturday afternoon, Haller and Lorna

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Haller drags Lorna outside. There is lake-dunking. And then there is talking.



Her pleas and threats and struggled went quite unheeded and Lorna was firmly brought to notice that her friend was indeed both bigger and stronger than she was and at least as stubborn. It was something of a shock to realize--she considered him something of a little brother after all and his scarecrow thinness didn't help that impression. Options exhausted, Lorna finally reached around and tickled Jim mercilessly once they were out on the grass where it wouldn't hurt quite so much to be dropped on her head. "Put me down!"

Jim automatically flinched away at the touch, then quashed his impulses. He wasn't Davey, after all. A moment of concentration, acknowledging and accepting the contact, and the ticklish feeling subsided. Ah, the unforeseen sideeffects of iron self-discipline. Jim paused, still dangling Lorna over his shoulder as her fingers scraped ineffectually against his ribs.

"Depends," he said. "Are you going to walk like an adult now?" The sweat and slight reddening of his face at the effort he let pass unnoticed. He wasn't that strong, but he'd dealt with enough uncooperative children to know better than to show weakness. And right now Lorna was certainly falling into that category.

It didn't help at all that her weight had dipped down again in the last couple months, she pretended to ignore and so far so had everyone else. "I'm supposed to walk like an adult when you've been treating me like a sack of meat?" Her voice turned wheedling, "Yeah, put me down and I'll walk like an adult." All the way back to the mansion.

"Uh huh." He didn't even want to try counting the number of times he'd heard that tone come out of a kid's mouth. Still, the big veins in his forehead told him it was time to put her down. Jim did so, but kept one hand firmly around her forearm. "Okay, we'll try this the grown-up way. But try to make a break for it and I'm going to borrow Rachel's tether. You definitely need the Time Out."

"I cannot believe you're treating me like I'm five!" Her face was red with all the blood that had rushed to her head as she'd hung upside down and her green hair haloed around her until she ran her free hand through it, taming it. "I don't need a time out and I certainly didn't need to be carried out of the damned house!"

"Yeah, because pouting and 'I don't wanna' when I try to get you to leave the room screams maturity." Jim shook his head and propelled her gently towards the lake. And it was such a nice day, too. "I thought I was supposed to be the one that has tantrums. That was not an appropriate greeting for a new student." The telepath looked sideways at her, frowning. "What's going on, Lorna?"

"Nothing's going on," she said, watching the ground beneath her feet. "I wasn't having a tantrum and it's not my fault that the new girl has no sense of humor and is a snob. Besides, she's not a student. She goes to Columbia. She just is living here."

"She's still new and a guest, and her sister's a student. And you didn't exactly make a great impression on Crystal, either. Anyway, you're a teacher. You're supposed to set an example, not bait the new girls." Even if the snark had amused the more Cyndi aspects of his personality, but common sense still held the majority rule. They reached the lakeshore, the green surface rippling gently under the slight breeze. Jim stopped and released Lorna's arm. "Did something happen?" he asked. "I know you've had a rough couple of, um . . . months . . . but you were being pretty harsh to someone you don't even know."

"Nothing is wrong!" Lorna said sharply and backed off a few steps, not trying to get away just getting some distance. She wasn't at all in the kind of mood to be deep and soul-searching and confessional. Particularly not when her pride was smarting and guilt was welling up for having once again taken out a poor mood on an Amaquelin. She was going to have to apologize to Medusa too and probably wouldn't have that one be believed either. Maybe grudges were a holy thing in Attilan.

Normally he would have tried to reason with her. Lorna was obviously distraught; yelling 'Nothing is wrong!' was a dead giveaway that something fairly major was, and he knew the turmoil of finding out about Zala's existence still had to be fresh. But she'd been publicly and unnecessarily sharp to a newcomer and the sister of a student who was already seriously questioning the school, and with Lorna roundabout wasn't likely to get results.

Sometimes you just had to listen to the voices.

Jim took a few brisk steps forward, grabbed Lorna's good arm, whirled her around twice, and then released her. In the direction of the lake.

Shock lasted about ten seconds, long enough for cold lake water to close over her head, even though she was just in the shallows. Sputtering and coughing, she sat up and shoved soaking wet hair out of her face. "You freaking JERK!" She got to her feet slowly, water plastering her clothes to her, making her movements stiff and jerky. "What the hell was that for?" She stalked out of the lake and over to Haller, spitting mad and sopping wet.

Jim regarded the dripping woman calmly. "That's what you do with unreasonable people. You throw them into large bodies of water. As we learned from Cain." He raised an eyebrow as she fumed at him, hands held still at his sides and purposely ignoring Cyndi's glee. "Seriously, Lorna. We know each other too well for this. You know I'm just going to keep chucking you in until you tell me what's going on, so you might as well get it over with and save yourself the dunking. Don't bother with threats of bodily harm. I'm crazy, you know."

Except that she was already wet and he wasn't. Without a moment's hesitation, she grabbed him and pulled him high up over the lake. "I'm not being unreasonable," she told him. "and when I say there's nothing wrong, I mean there's nothing wrong." She let him go and waited for his grip on her to fail.

Jim dangled from her wrists for a moment, trying to keep most of his weight on the one he hadn't dislocated a month ago, but his arm really wasn't up to the task. He needed to spend more time in physical training. He raised his face and gave her a level look.

"You're an enormous liar," Jim said. "And I'm getting you back for this."

Then he let go.

It could have been worse, he thought as he plunged feet-first into the lake. He could have been wearing a leather bodysuit again.

Her shoulder was aching as she sat on the dock and waited for him to swim back out. The day was warm enough but the brisk breeze made her shiver in her wet clothes. Dropping him in the lake had done wonders for her temper and she was quiet but no longer hostile as he pulled himself up onto the old wood. "I broke up with Remy."

Jim said nothing as he climbed up the dock ladder, his clothes dragging at him. The dock was warm from the sun. He crawled up to sit beside her, water spreading in a dark stain across the wood beneath them.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

She shrugged. "It would have happened sooner or later. I shouldn't get involved with people, it just leads to badness." But her shoulders hunched as if braced for a blow. "It wasn't unpleasant or anything. Not like with Alex. I just told him...that I needed to take care of myself for a while. I don't know if he believed me."

"At least you told him. That's all you can do, sometimes." He thought of amethyst eyes reflecting flame, wide with fear. That's more than some of us can manage.

"Taking care of yourself is important. There's no use being with someone if you're only going to hurt them." Jim slipped his arm around her back, lightly. He could feel the warmth of her skin soaked through the sodden cloth. His eyes fell out across the lake, resting on the opposite shore. "That's not good for anyone."

"I told him that it wasn't him. Which is true. But it's not." She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder, "I lied to him. I sat there telling him that I wanted my life to be more honest and I lied to him. I wonder if you get extra years in hell for that kind of thing."

"Sometimes truth can only hurt. A lie's . . . kinder. Maybe not better, but kinder. Why put that on someone, if it serves nothing?" Jim gave her a squeeze. "We'll keep each other company in the infernal flames."

"I just didn't want to fight with him." She gave a half-laugh and shook her head, "No, that's not true. I wanted to detail out every reason that I was leaving. But I didn't want to face what he'd say in return. Didn't want him to reinforce what I'm already thinking about myself."

Jim half-turned towards her, his tone still soft. "And not wanting to hurt him, either, didn't have anything to do with it?"

Lorna shrugged, "Some. Not entirely. He's gone through a lot and he's finally to a point where he doesn't think he's a monster and I didn't want to ruin that. I just didn't see how I could tell him that I don't know how to feel about the person he's become."

"People change. Feelings change. That's not something you can help. But that you still care enough that you don't want to ruin the progress he's made says something, too." Jim exhaled slowly, feeling the head of her shoulder under his palm. Strands of green hair slid against his thumb, dark with water. "Getting what you want, while not making other people pay for it . . . I don't know how to do it. I wish I did. I guess you just . . . try. The best you can."

"I guess." Lorna shifted and lifted her head, making a face at him. "You're all wet," she told him unnecessarily and settled back again. "I'll apologize to Medusa."

Jim nodded serenely, ignoring the face. "That would be a good plan. Whether or not she's going to take it after all this I don't know, but it couldn't hurt. And yeah. I am all wet. But I guess that's only fair." He reached up to give her a noogie in a gesture he had picked up from Moira long ago. "You'd better watch your step or Forge is gonna stick a filter on your posting abilities."

"And I can't beat Forge up. I owe him too much, damn." Her arms snuck around Jim's waist. "I'm sure that she won't take it. Her sister didn't. Oh well, that's two less people I'll have to feed, right? People who hate me don't require attention."

The telepath's lips quirked slightly as he watched a bird skim over the surface of the lake. "Never know unless you try."