Davey and Maries: Go Fish

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

As promised, Davey implements his sneak attack.

"Hi! I have cookies. Can I come in?"

"Um," Marie said, looking up in surprise at a ziplock baggy full of what appeared to be chocolate chip cookies being waved in her face. She'd been doing better with company lately, but had still been spending most of her free time alone or with Garrison, not really feeling social. However, one look into Davey's earnest face and she couldn't say no. "Yeah, sure," she said, moving out of the way to allow him to enter. Padding into the kitchen, she poured two tall glasses of milk, took a deep breath, and returned to the living room to set them on the coffee table.

"Thanks!" Davey flopped down onto the floor, cookies carelessly dropped on the coffee table. He grabbed a glass and beamed up at the smaller woman. He loved visiting girls. They seemed to have this uncontrollable need to feed him. He had no idea why Jim held back; Davey exploited this at every opportunity.

"Lorna made them," the alter explained, launching an attack on the ziplock. "They're good and I'm bored, so I'm bothering you. Want some?"

Wondering why she couldn't ever be that carefree, Marie reached out to take a cookie, trying to remember what Lorna had said about visits from Davey. He always left a mess...well, she smiled wryly watching him munch on cookies with crumbs flying everywhere, that was a given. Games. That was the other thing. Davey liked games. And that gave her something to focus on and do. "Ah'm sorry you're bored hon. Did you want to play a game? Ah think Ah've got some cards or something 'round here."

"Yeah!" Davey grinned through the crumbs, the expression making David's long face look years younger. "Games are acceptable. Okay, you're allowed "

Marie smiled back. Who couldn't looking at that face? Dunking her cookie in the glass of milk, she polished it off before going to rustle in the closet, emerging with a satisfied grin. "One set of playing cards, hopefully intact, as promised. What games do you know?" she asked as she began to shuffle.

"Go Fish," Davey replied promptly. He jammed the remainder of his cookie into his mouth, rubbed his hands hastily on his jeans, and extended a hand for the deck. "Do you know how to play? I can deal, it's fun."

"That one Ah know," Marie said, folding to sit Indian style across from Davey before handing him the cards. "Tell you a secret?," she said, lower her voice and winking. "Ah was the Go Fish champion growing up. Ah bet you're pretty good too."

"I'm okay," Davey said as he shuffled a bit haphazardly. There was no real need to mention the fact that his favorite opponent had been a high-level telepath with the world's most immaculate pokerface. He dealt seven cards to Marie and himself and set the rest of the deck in the middle of the table, then scooped up his own hand. He fanned the cards slowly, peering over the tops at Marie. "Okay, ready? You first."

"Ok," Marie said, taking a quick sip of her milk as she glanced at her cards. "Any Jacks?"

"Nope. Go Fish!" Davey examined his hand appraisingly as Marie removed a card from the pile. "Hey, is that lady Mystique really your dad?"

Marie's dropped the card she'd been picking and then hastily picked it back up. "Uh. Yeah." She searched for something else to say and found herself coming up blank.

"That's weird. And the blue man's her kid too, except isn't she his mom?" Davey lifted his eyes from his cards to look at Marie. "You guys are confusing. I get lots more from Jim now, but it's kind of like watching scrambled TV. I got to have Cyndi or someone explain it to me, so sometimes by the time it gets to me it's really bizarre. But I get why Jim thought it'd be too weird to talk to you about unless you started it. Do you have any tens?"

Marie shook her head silently, peering into guileless blue eyes. "Life here is pretty confusing, huh? Ah sometimes wish Ah had someone 'round to explain it to me. Got any fives?"

"Yes," Davey admitted, handing one over. "Your turn again. So what'd it feel like? When you found out."

"Uh. Not sure. Ah kinda didn't believe it when Ah first heard. So Ah guess it felt...strange. Not how Ah thought it would be to find out about my bio parents." <i>Why are you telling this to a ten year old?</i> "Got any twos?"

"Nope. Go fish." Davey peered over his cards at Marie. "It's just . . . weird. We didn't know David's mom and dad weren't really his mom and dad, but practically everybody did even before I met them. Charles and Moira and Aunt Gaby knew. All along. And then when Jim found out nobody told me until Jack told <I>everybody.</I> So I got to be last to know. It wasn't fair. So many people knew, and they never told me. So when I found out Charles was really our dad, and he'd been right there all along, it felt like I got . . . cheated." Davey paused, staring at his hand. "Got any sevens?"

"Go fish," Marie said. "Ah think your parentage is more complicated than mine. And that's gotta suck, to be the last to know. Bet that happens to you a lot, huh?"

"All the time," Davey said as he slid his fingernails beneath a card on the pile. "It's because I'm the youngest. They hide stuff from me because they don't want me to get screwed up. Except even though they were just trying to help sometimes that makes it worse. Especially when you find out on your own later." The alter glanced at the card for a moment, then tucked it into his hand to turn his attention back to Marie. "How'd you find out? That that lady's your, um, mom. Or dad. Or whatever."

"Ah guess from Jean. 'cept Ah had to ask Jean to run the test after some rumor got started that Mystique was mom based on a prophecy that someone kinda spread to everyone <i>except</i> me until Amanda told me, so Ah totally get being the last to know. Wow, that was a lot more complicated to try and explain than Ah though it would be. If anyone ever asks you if you want a book of prophecies? Burn it." Marie wasn't sure why she was telling Davey so much, but he was surprisingly easy to talk to. "Got any aces?"

The alter blinked at her. "Wow," said Davey, a new kind of awe in his voice, "okay, you win. We just found it on a piece of paper. Although I guess you found it on a piece of paper too, kind of, so it's the same. And whoever wrote it knows it too I guess. Um, yeah, here's an ace." Davey flicked the card towards her with David's long fingers, then frowned. "Do you think that lady knows?"

Marie took the card, blinking slowly. "You mean Mystique? Uh...wow. Hadn't even thought about that. She was willing to let me die a few years go...so maybe not, since she always seems so protective of Kurt. Or maybe she just doesn't like me as much, who knows?" Marie cleared her throat, looking embarrassed. "Ah'm sorry Davey. You didn't need to hear that."

Davey looked at her with an expression of genuine confusion. "Why not?" he asked, the hand holding the cards dropping to the table. "I mean, why's it not okay to be upset? I asked."

The alter looked around, as if checking the room for intruders. Finding no one, he leaned across the table with a conspiratorial air. "Jim's worried," Davey confessed in an undertone, "because he knows this really sucks. It made us crazy. He doesn't want that to happen to you. We really like you." His elbows sliding in the stack of cards, the young man gazed up at Marie with earnest blue eyes. "It's okay to be upset, if you want. Nobody's going to be mad. Not even Jack."

"Well, tell Jim it's ok. Ah was already crazy before all this." Marie made a face. "That was a bad joke, wasn't it?" She continued talking without waiting for an answer. "But thank you Davey. It's...well, talking has helped. Just talking about it." And strangely, it had, or maybe it had been the ease with which Davey had accepted her emotions and in fact validated them. Whatever the case, Marie was left feeling as if the weight on her shoulders was slightly lighter than it had been before.

Davey pulled back across the table, his smile smug. "Talking always helps. Eventually we're even gonna make Jim start doing it." He looked at her for a moment, as if he were puzzling something out. "We're both kind of crazy and full of stupid-weird parent stuff, so I think I want to hug you now. Is that okay?"

Marie's cheeks turned pink as she nodded, holding out her arms. "Ah think it would be good for Jim to talk too. And if he...or you...ever need someone to listen, well, Ah'm always around. And able to understand kinda crazy pretty well."

Davey nodded solemnly. "Just like way too many people here," he intoned. He scooted around the table and hugged the smaller woman, cautiously avoiding contact with her cheek and totally ignoring the gagging noises Cyndi was supplying from the back of the brain. She didn't mean them. . . . Well, she did, but more from the feeling that such a reaction should come of a scene like this. Davey didn't care in the least. Marie had been nice to him when he'd been hurt, even without really knowing who he was. In Davey's mind it was only right to return the favor.