Marie and Scott: Maturity

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Having had one coping mechanism fail already, Marie tries the time honored Xavier’s traditions of avoidance and intellectualization. Scott finds her on the flyer’s platform and the two talk about how she’s doing.

Marie sat perched on the edge of the flyer's platform, her bare feet dangling off the edge. They'd done it. They'd caught him. They were holding him and they'd be sure to question him - of course, whether he'd actually be able to provide any useful information was another. She went through the facts of what catching Sabretooth meant and would result in to avoid dealing with her own emotions. When she’d tried that with Lorna last night, the pair had ended up in Vermont.

Scott made sure that he made a little noise as he came out onto the platform, so that he didn't startle her. Jean, when she'd located Marie for him, had said that she was distracted. Understandably so, all things considered.

"Cold out here," he mentioned offhandedly.

"Is it?" Marie said, Scott still managing to startle her slightly. "And unless you're really good at keeping a secret, Ah know you're not up here for yourself."

"Hey, you never know. My brooding patterns might have changed. I'm a work in progress these days." He came over to join her, sitting down on the edge of the platform. "If I jumped, would you catch me?"

"You wouldn't jump," she replied, swinging one foot up and letting it drop. "Jean would kill you."

"I could say I was trying to figure out whether I'd developed the power of flight?" Silly, to be bantering like this. But coming right out and asking her how she was doing with the latest events felt like it would be... gauche.

"Then Ah'd catch ya and drop ya in the lake," Marie said. "And Ah don't think anyone would blame me." She meant the words to come out light and teasing, but couldn't quite keep a darker edge from slipping in.

"Mmm. Maybe we'll skip that, then. I think the lake would be awfully cold these days." Scott stared out over the grounds, silent for a moment. "I'd forgotten what a good view there is from up here. Good place to sit and think about... things."

"Yeah. 'Things.'" Marie sighed, pulling her feet up and wrapping both arms tightly around her knees. It wasn't as if she hadn't known what he was going to eventually get to the minute she'd seen him. "It's just weird, y'know?"

"What kind of weird are we talking about here?" he prompted gently.

"Ah dunno," she said, resting her chin on her knees. "Weird as in they caught him. Weird as in Ah hear him telling me that it won't last, that nothing can hold him." She closed her eyes. "And it didn't last with Magneto so why will it be any different with him?"

Scott conceded the point with a nod. "On the other hand," he said quietly, "Sabretooth isn't Magneto. The challenges of holding him aren't quite as severe." His mind was full of images from that night under Ryker's, images Marie knew nothing about. He hadn't called Alison yet. He really needed to do that.

"It's not like he won't have help, if it'll serve Magneto's purposes to have him back," Marie replied. "Even Magneto didn't break out of jail by himself."

"True. But do you really believe it's inevitable, or are you just afraid that it is?"

"Is there a difference?" she asked.

Scott gave that some thought. "I think there is," he said finally, quietly. "It's all right to be afraid of what might happen, especially with precedents like Magneto breaking out of the foolproof plastic prison. But if we start assuming that it's going to happen and there's nothing we can do, then what's the point of doing anything in the first place?" Scott sighed a bit. "I don't like futility, Marie. In fact, it kind of drives me crazy faster than anything else. So I've got to believe that a success like this isn't inevitably going to be reversed the next time Magneto decides he's bored and would like to stage a prison break."

"Ah guess it's hard for me to draw that line there. Because Ah do know he'll try...but Ah guess Ah have to remember that just because he tries doesn't mean he'll succeed." A gust of wind blew past, pushing Marie's hair away from her face.

"It's hard to wrap your mind around it, I think," Scott said after another moment's pause. "Knowing that he's not running around free out there anymore. Even if it's only for now."

"Yeah," she agreed. "Ah guess we all get used to our demons being out there. It's strange to think of them captured." And forces us to remind ourselves that we are better than them.

Scott tilted his head, watching her. "So I suppose here's where I get painfully direct," he said, lightly, "and ask you if you're going to be okay." There were a number of people he was concerned about, in the midst of all of this. He didn't want any of them to slip through the cracks... no, he wasn't deluding himself that he had magic words to fix things for any of them. But he wanted them to know that he knew this wasn't easy, and that he was here.

"Ah will be," Marie said. Eventually. "Not like Ah have as much of a right as others to be feeling like this. Ah was never left alone with him when they took me."

And does that really matter, or are you just looking for ways to convince yourself that you should be less bothered than you are? "There was... something that happened," Scott said after a moment, with some difficulty. "Back last summer. It's not in the open files, for a few reasons. But I was one of the people who had to go in, and find what he did... I think, even if he does get out, every day he spends in custody is another day he'll never be able to do anything like that again. It helps."

"He likes violence," she said, then stopped herself. "No, that's not right. He loves it. Relishes it. Enjoys it." Marie couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through her body. "Every day he's kept from that is a good day."

"Then the team did good. Right?"

Marie was quiet as she thought. "Yeah, they did," she finally agreed. Ah just wish it'd been me. Then again, Ah already had the chance to get my hits in.

"I would have liked to have been right there to help take him down," Scott said, "but I've learned to live with disappointment. I think that's a sign of maturity?" He gave Marie a lop-sided smile.

"Maybe," she said, smiling back despite herself. "Does it get easier?"

"Remarkably, yes," Scott said, part of him surprised to realize that he was telling the truth. "The job gets done, and it feels good, even if you weren't the one doing it with your own two hands."

"Guess Ah'm not quite that mature yet," Marie said wryly. "How long did it take you?" She loosened her grip on her knees, letting her feet slip off the edge again.

"Remember what I said when I sat down? Work in progress."