xp_logs | Giving Thanks -- Terry/Bobby

Terry and Bobby take a trip up to Boston to see his family. Some parts of his family take their presence better than others. Backdated to Thanksgiving

The Drake house looked like a holiday card. The trees on the street clung to their brilliantly colored leaves for just a little while longer, a bike and football rested against each other in a way that looked staged rather than forgotten. The lights of the house glowed softly against the gently falling evening and music and laughter spilled out as the front door opened and a man and woman stepped out, calling farewells over their shoulder.

Terry moved slightly behind Bobby and clutched the small gift she'd brought. The couple continued down the walk with exclamations of delight and recognition when they saw Bobby and stopped to talk with him. In fairly short order, Terry figured out that these were the Drake's neighbors and they had a daughter that Terry would have had to hurt badly were she ever to come near Bobby. Just as a precaution, of course, since the look on Bobby's face pretty much told Terry that he'd rather have eaten live toads than look twice at Muffy (which wasn't really her name but Terry was refusing to pay attention on principle.) After a minute or so, Terry cleared her throat and Bobby broke into the stream of chatter from the woman to introduce her. (Calling her 'my...Terry' when he obviously choked on the idea of telling these people about the marriage before he told his parents. Terry was amused.)

"Aren't you lovely?" cried the woman, still clutching Terry's hand in a death grip. "Brandon, isn't she lovely? Tell her she's lovely. You're quite adorable, my dear. Such a charming accent. Where are you from? I'll bet it's Wales. I just adore Wales. We went there on a trip a few years ago. Such an enchanting country. Gracious, and they have such pretty accents. Say something else!" With that she paused and stared intently at Terry, like waiting for a dog to bark after a command to speak.

Terry smothered her amusement again and deliberately let slip her American accent. "I'm of Ireland, actually, ma'am. To be sure, Wales is quite the lovely sight but I'm fonder of the hills in County Mayo where I hail from." She shivered then, delicately but obviously. "Twas a grand thing to meet yeh both. Perhaps your next trip, yeh'll try Mayo and see if you like it as well as Wales."

"Boy, it's sure cold out here!" Bobby announced suddenly, slipping his arm around Terry. "It was great seeing you." He steered her toward the door, lips pressed together to keep from laughing.

Terry waved cheerfully as they walked away, though her shoulders shook from the repressed laughter. Her ill-concealed glee helped her get all the way up to the door before her nerves set back in. She made a quiet meeping sound as Bobby opened the door and if he hadn't had his arm around her she'd have stopped moving entirely.

Bobby kissed her cheek and whispered "It'll be okay, sweetie." He squeezed her shoulders and led her inside, calling out "We're here! Mom? Dad?" as he closed the door behind them.

Terry gave him a wide-eyed look as the conversation that she was doing her best not to listen to abruptly ceased and footsteps started to come closer. Determined to not appear as terrified as she was, she lifted her chin and took a deep breath then plastered a smile on her face. Not a second too soon as Bobby's parents appeared in the entryway, his mother whom she'd met and his father whom she hadn't.

Bobby grinned and stepped away from Terry to hug his parents, one after the other. "Hey."

"Oh, Bobby. We're so glad you could make it," his mother said with a smile, as if there had ever been any doubt in her mind.

Bobby's father looked at Terry with a polite smile. "And who is this lovely lady?"

Terry's smile widened and she stepped forward to offer him her hand, "I'm Terry, Mr. Drake. It's nice to finally meet you." She looked over at Bobby's mother who still had her arm around her son, "Good to see you again, Mrs. Drake. Thank you both for having me."

Bobby's mother nodded, giving her a smile. "Of course, dear. Any friend of Bobby's is welcome in our home."

Bobby pulled away from his mother at the word 'friend', going back to Terry's side and slipping an arm around her waist. "Actually, mom, dad...there's something you should know. Can we...go sit down or something?"

The smile on Madeline Drake's face became even more forced. The last time Bobby had said those words to them, they'd found out their son was a mutant. Still, with a guest in the house, it was up to her to be the picture of hospitality. "Of course, dear. Let me just go check on dinner..." She clacked off toward the kitchen as Bobby gave Terry an 'oh shit' look and led the way into the living room.

Terry gave him a wide-eyed look as the conversation that she was doing her best not to listen to abruptly ceased and footsteps started to come closer. Determined to not appear as terrified as she was, she lifted her chin and took a deep breath then plastered a smile on her face. Not a second too soon as Bobby's parents appeared in the entryway, his mother whom she'd met and his father whom she hadn't.

That left Terry and Bobby with his father who was still watching them genially. If he, like his wife felt any trepidation at Bobby's request, he didn't show it. Terry bit the inside of her lip and looked up at Bobby then back at his father. "You never told me that you look so much like your da, Bobby. Obviously looks run in the family."

Bobby rolled his eyes as his father gave Terry a wide smile and sank into an armchair, waving a hand invitingly at the couch. "Well, have a seat while we wait for your mother." He chuckled and added "I like her, Bobby. She knows rugged good looks when she sees them."

With a soft groan Bobby sat on the couch, barely managing not to facepalm. "Daaaad," he whined plaintively. Parents were so embarrassing.

Terry laughed and tucked herself onto the couch at Bobby's side, legs crossed neatly at the ankles. "Bobby tells me that you do a lot of traveling for your job, Mr. Drake," she said once she was settled, sliding her hand into Bobby's automatically and lacing their fingers together. Her ring glinted on her finger, unassuming silver and green.

"Oh, I don't know if I'd say a lot," Bobby's father replied, settling into his chair as Bobby's mother came into the room, taking the chair on the opposite side of the room.

"My da used to go out on assignment for months at a time. I got birthday cards, phone calls, letters. He was always busy." Terry had tensed when Bobby's mother walked in but kept talking, her accent sharpening just a bit, words speeding up with nerves. "It's lovely that you're all together for the holidays."

"Yes," Bobby's mother agreed with a bland smile. "And it's good to see that you're feeling better, dear. Bobby told me you were a bit...under the weather?" Clearly she thought this was just a lie to get out of coming home. As if family wasn't the most important thing.

Terry flushed and her grip on Bobby's hand tightened. "Um, aye, there was..." It surprised her to discover that she didn't want to talk about it. Even though it was over. She looked down, "I lost my voice. And my hearing. It's a virus that targets the x-gene."

"...Ah," Mrs. Drake replied stiffly. "Well."

Bobby broke into the silence to add quickly, "But they found out what was wrong and fixed her right up, good as new."

Terry continued to focus on the close bitten fingernails of her right hand. Shouldn't have reminded them that I'm a mutant. She shivered and swallowed guilt for the thought. There was nothing wrong with being a mutant. No matter what anyone thought. Nothing. "Good as new," she repeated quietly, "Just a fluke, really. Luckily it's not very contagious so B...everyone else was just fine."

"...Well. Isn't that good, then," Madeline said in a strained voice.

Bobby's father rolled his eyes and leaned forward. "We're glad you're both here and well, kids. And I'm looking forward to getting to know Bobby's girlfriend better. You've been together for quite a while now, haven't you?"

It was the perfect opportunity--or would be if Bobby could find the words.

Yes, now would have been very good and Terry certainly wasn't going to be the one to say anything. Instead, she pulled her hand away from him and ran it through her hair, pushing red curls over her shoulder, "Saturday is our anniversary." 15 months. Or three, depending on how you looked at it.

Bobby found his voice at last and said quietly, "Our...three month anniversary."

His mother looked confused. "Three months? Robert, I met her last...year..." Her eyes grew wide and she sat back, paling.

"Fifteen month," Terry corrected gently and took his hand again, her eyes on him, a small, adoring smile on her face. "Just three months since."

Bobby's father just sat there looking confused, but Madeline said weakly, "Please, Bobby. Tell me I'm misunderstanding."

Bobby tightened his hand on Terry's and looked at his father, then his mother. "Terry and I...are married," he confirmed solemnly.

"We're, uh, still planning a proper ceremony." Even though it was his power, it was Terry's hands that were ice-cold and bloodless. She was afraid too look anywhere but him. So of course she forced herself to do so, stealing glances at Bobby's mother and then his father. Pick me, choose me. Don't leave me, Bobby, whatever they say, she begged him silently.

Madeline Drake looked slightly mollified at the mention of a proper ceremony, but couldn't resist asking, "Do you plan to have children?" Mutant grandchildren, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

"Mom!" Bobby said warningly, frowning. He looked at her, then at his father. "We didn't plan for it to happen but...I'm glad it did. We're happy, we love each other. And the rest of it...we'll figure out later."

"We haven't talked about that. I'm still trying to pick invitations," Terry gave a nervous half-laugh. "I'm...I really don't know what I'm doing, actually. I was raised by my uncle and he wasn't much for fancy affairs."

Seeing an opportunity to make this better, Bobby added, "And I'm sure not any help. Hey, maybe you could help, mom...?"

"Oh. Well, I suppose...I mean, it would be proper, if you want..." Madeline was still reeling a bit from the news and the implications, but the thought of planning her son's wedding with her...well, daughter-in-law, was a rather nice one. "I do wish you'd just gone about it the proper way from the beginning, Bobby."

"Bobby and I are terrible at doing things in the proper way. He was rescuing me from people before we ever started dating." She smiled shyly, "My own mother died when I was just a baby. So I grew up with only a bunch of ruffians. I really don't have any idea of what I'm doing, I'd love help if you could give it." Terry absolutely adored Bobby at times like this. Well, all the time really but especially like this when he gave her the perfect opening. Family was, after all, the most important thing.

Bobby relaxed a little. How could his mom not completely fall for the girl at his side?

Before Madeline could answer, William spoke up at last. "Where are you having the ceremony?"

Terry looked startled and shrank into Bobby's side, "We've not really discussed it yet. New York probably. I don't think we should trouble everyone with flying to the Keep for it. It'd be such an inconvenience."

"The Keep?" William asked curiously.

Bobby grinned, sitting forward. "Yeah. Her family has a castle in Ireland."

"I have..." Terry started to say then extracted her hand from Bobby's to lean down and rummage through her oversized bag. After a moment she extracted a small photo album and flipped it open, holding it out to Bobby's father, "this is the Keep here."

The photo was from her 18th birthday. They'd run into a German tourist group coming to see the keep and Terry had been talked into playing 'real live Irish lass' for them. One had sent her a picture a couple months later. In the picture, Terry was laughing and pretending to swoon as Bobby lifted her in his arms. The tourists with them looked pleased.

Mr. Drake took the photo, smiling as he looked at it, but Mrs. Drake looked a bit distraught. "Surely you weren't really considering having the wedding in another country?? What's wrong with right here, in Boston?"

"Mom. New York is closer to all of our fa--uh, friends. It's not like it's that far for you guys."

"I was thinking St. Mark's in Salem Center. I'm Catholic and I know the priest there." Terry shifted, because religion was rather more divisive where she came from than here and it always made her nervous. "I'd love to be married in the same church as my parents but it is another country. I don't think it's really an option."

"A Catholic wedding? Oh, how lovely." Religion clearly wasn't much of an issue to Bobby's mother, as she smiled wider at this news. "Can you do that with Bobby not being Catholic?" She looked at Bobby, seeming more amused than anything, at the moment. "You're not converting, are you?"

"Uh." Bobby scratched his ear sheepishly. "Not...I mean, I don't plan on it." He glanced at Terry somewhat nervously.

Terry shook her head, "It's not a problem. He doesn't have to convert just for me. There are still some classes that they want us to take but those are more for discernment than faith." This was encouraging. Bobby's mother didn’t look like she was actively planning to kidnap Bobby off to a deprogramming center just yet and even looked slightly pleased.

Bobby's marriage, hasty as it may have been, was a comfort Madeline wouldn't admit to. She'd had her concerns about her eldest son--concerns that had nothing to do with him being a mutant. But clearly those concerns had been groundless. "Well. That's just fine, then," she said with a bright smile, then gave her husband an almost conspiratorial look. "Will...do we still have that bottle of champagne? I think this calls for a celebration."

Bobby's dad chuckled and got to his feet. "I'll go check, dear," he replied, heading toward the hallway obediently. Like father, like son.

Bobby looked over at Terry and gave her a relieved smile. This was going better than he'd expected. Neither of them had been asked to leave, at least. He was even willing to drink a glass of champagne in the interest of continued peace. "You and Terry ought to exchange email addresses, mom. So you can coordinate wedding stuff." This was a relief on multiple levels, for Bobby. With his mom involved, he would be asked to make fewer decisions. What did he care what kind of paper the invitations were printed on, or whether the church flowers included white lilies or not? Plus, it was a way to make her feel involved, and therefore make her less likely to dwell on the whole 'mutant issue'.

Terry risked his mother's wrath by leaning in and stealing a quick kiss. She snuggled in next to him a little more securely and smiled at Madeline, "I actually bought the book of invitations, if you wanted to look at them with me. There's still the issue of theme of course but..." she cut herself off and frowned toward the front of the house, "I think..."

The front door opened and slammed shut and footfalls like a herd of stampeding cattle thundered through the entry and into the living room bearing with them a dark haired boy in a damp coat, "Hey, Mom is dinner ready yet? I'm gonna..." Ronnie stopped dead at the sight of his mutie brother and that freak girlfriend of his, "What are they doing here?"

Bobby stiffened, glancing at Ronnie and then away, staring at he and Terry's linked hands as Madeline got to her feet. "Ronnie. Your brother is here for Thanksgiving, dear." She gave him her best 'everything is okay' smile and moved toward him. "Come sit down, Bobby's been giving us some big news."

Ronnie glared the freaks on the couch. "How come he couldn't stay at that school of his? Last time he brought people home, some freak tried to blow up the police." He stepped back from his mom, body stiff and hands fisted. "Besides, I thought he hated us. He always acts like he hates us."

"I don't hate you," Bobby whispered, squeezing his eyes closed as his hand tightened on Terry's. Ronnie's words were like physical attacks, each one tearing at Bobby's heart.

He looked up, his eyes begging his brother to stop this, to go back to how things were somehow. "Can't we just...you're my brother, Ronnie."

Terry pressed his hand and leaned into him, not wanting to get into the middle of this family matter but also unwilling to just sit by and let someone take strips out of her husband. "Ronnie," she said quietly, just to catch his attention, "we're here to have a good holiday, is all. Bobby wanted to see his family because you're all important to him."

Ronnie transfered his glare to the freak girlfriend. He remembered meeting her before, last year. She'd tried to trick him into thinking she was human but she wasn't. They weren't even worth his time, "I'm going to Chad's," Ronnie told his mom, "I'm not going to stay here if they're here."

Bobby looked away quickly at that, lowering his head to hide the pain in his expression.

"Ronnie, we're a family. That includes you," Mrs. Drake chided, but without much emphasis behind it. She looked at her younger son, then at Bobby and Terry, and sighed. "I want you here for Thanksgiving dinner, if nothing else," she compromised. "We can all be a loving, caring family for the space of one meal, can't we?"

"You always liked him better," spat the younger boy and stormed out. A moment later his footsteps thundered up the stairs followed shortly by the slamming of a door.

There was a horrible, uncomfortable silence. Finally Terry shifted and got to her feet, giving apologetic look to Bobby's mother. "I think I'd like to take a walk. Bobby? Will you come with me?"

"Yeah. Sure," Bobby said listlessly and got to his feet, avoiding his mother's eyes--which of course was exactly what she was doing to him.

Mr. Drake appeared in the doorway at that moment with the bottle of champagne and four glasses. "Did I hear Ronnie come in?" he asked innocently.

"Come on," Bobby muttered, tugging Terry toward the front door. "We'll be back." Maybe.

Terry slipped her arms around Bobby's waist and let him lead her out the door, sending a shy smile to Mr Drake as she did so. As the door closed behind her, she heard Mrs. Drake begin to tell her husband what had happened in the short period of time that he'd been off getting the champagne. Terry guided Bobby down the walk toward the park he'd shown her last year, keeping quiet.

Bobby was quiet too, hurt and thoughtful as he walked at her side. After a few minutes of this silence, he sighed, not looking at her. "He's never going to forgive me for being what I am," he murmured, voicing what he's known for a while now.

She wanted to protest, tell him that Ronnie just needed time and everything would work out in the end. But while lies came glibly to her in other occasions, for Bobby she couldn't offer the same. She wanted so much to make everything better for him. Fix this hurt, reconcile him with his brother. The fact that she could do nothing but make it worse made her want to scream. She didn't, of course, just stopped him and wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly. "I'm sorry, leannan. I'm so sorry."

Bobby shrugged, stiff in her embrace as he tried to bottle up how much his brother's words had hurt. "It's not like I expected anything else. And there's nothing I can do--I mean, I can't not be a mutant." He gave Terry a smile fake enough to make his mother beam with pride and tousled her hair gently. "Come on, let's keep going. Are you warm enough?" The cold didn't bother him, of course.

"Aye, I'm all right." Rising on her toes, she kissed him gently, hoping to remind him that she was there for him, no matter what happened. Trust me, she pleaded slightly, I'm right here. That wasn't the issue though and she couldn't replace his family for him. She could only be herself.