Wanda and Amanda

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

As soon as she can, Wanda stops by to see if Amanda's up for some company - it turns out she is and there's much relief being swapped around.



She'd slept for longer than she would have possible, without dreams, and when she'd awoken, Angelo was there. There was a unreal quality to everything - riding the city, the two weeks after, the past day and night - and she was having trouble keeping everything straight. The moment of clarity in the police station when she'd seen Pete, Remy and Angelo standing there had passed, and now she was stuck processing. She was sitting curled in an armchair by one of the suite's large windows, still dressed in the fluffy white bathrobe and doodling idly on the complimentary stationary, when there was a knock at the door.

Angelo glanced over at her questioningly. In an undertone, so whoever was outside wouldn't hear, he asked, "You okay for visitors?"

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Sure," she said, looking down at the notepad. It was covered in scribbled stick figures and she made a face, tearing off the sheet and screwing it into a ball. Enough of the crazy already. "As long as it's not that bloody Farouk wanting lessons in magical history again." A ghost of a smile flitted across her thin face.

"If he's come all the way to England t'pester you, I'll kick his ass an' throw him out myself", he promised, then got up and headed over to open the door.

What Angelo found on the other side of the hotel door was an exhausted and rumpled looking Wanda. The two weeks of searching for Amanda had allowed her time to heal, or nearly heal, a lot of the injuries she'd incurred in the battle through London; the two weeks had, though, been filled with more sleepless nights than ones with sleep and repeated trips to and from Cambridge. But despite all that, the smile she gave him was warm. "I haven't missed visiting hours, have I?" she asked, voice carrying into the room.

Amanda's head jerked up and was up and out of the chair before the question ended. "Wanda!" she exclaimed, rushing to the door and virtually throwing herself into the older woman's arms. The Chaos Witch, her mind whispered, bringing a memory of a dank public toilet and a mirage in the mirror. "Fuck, it's good to see you."

Laughter that was heavily colored with relief echoed down the hallway as Wanda held Amanda tightly. "I assure you the feeling is certainly mutual." She pulled back just enough to walk them into the room so Angelo could shut the door before pulling Amanda back under one arm. Wanda gave her a quick once over with sharp eyes that spoke volumes of her worry. "How are you doing?"

"You mean apart from the random crazy where I start telling fairy tales?" Amanda replied, arm wrapped around Wanda's waist. "Okay. Tired. Ange has been looking after me." She gave her boyfriend a grateful look.

He smiled over at her, and it was clear to anyone who'd seen him recently that the circles under his own eyes had lessened in the last 24 hours. "You slept pretty well, though. Said you were feelin' better?" That was a worried half-question.

"I am. 'S just gunna take a while to put my head back together, is all. 'S a bit overwhelming sometimes." As much as she didn't want to worry him any more, she wasn't going to lie to him either. Not after everything. She looked up at Wanda, frowning a little as she saw how exhausted she looked. "Tho' it looks like you need rest more than I do. C'mon, sit down before you fall down." She tugged Wanda over to the small divan in the suite's 'living room'.

"There's a pot calling for you," Wanda said mildly as she followed Amanda's directions and sat with a small sigh. She rubbed her eyes and grimaced at the gritty feeling. "The lack of sleep will be fixed shortly - Agatha was near to drugging my tea, I think, before the news broke that you'd been found." Another look over reassured her that Amanda wasn't missing any of her limbs or anything important - the witch sounded tired but like herself.

"Tea!" Amanda looked up at Angelo. "Love? Could you sort out room service, get something sent up?" And possibly give them a little time to talk.

He glanced between her and Wanda, not sure if he should find an excuse to leave them to talk alone for a while, then just nodded. "Sure. Just tea, or food?"

"We are not going to discuss the last time I ate--" Agatha had firmly placed a plate full of food down in front of her...yesterday at some point...and had lectured here about her atrocious eating habits the entire time, right up until the plate had been washed and put away. 'You need to find this girl of yours,' she had said tightly, 'because I'm not sure how else you manage to survive. "So if you manage to place some orders, you would make me a very happy woman."

"Okay", he said easily. "I'll get whatever sounds fillin'. Be right here if you need me." And he wandered into the bedroom to make the call.

Amanda watched him go, a fond smile on her face. "He's been like that since they picked me up at the police station," she remarked. "Keeping close, making sure I'm all right." Her face fell a little. "I scared the shite out of him, vanishing like that. Scared everyone."

Wanda nodded but there was no malice in her voice when she responded, "Of course you did, Amanda. You're important to us all in our own, unique ways. It was not like you did this on purpose and the important bit is we have you back. Though I reserve the right to shake you silly the next time." She gives her a teasing smile as she placed her hand over Amanda's.

"I just... I don't even know how it happened, getting stuck inside the city in the first place. And then later..." Amanda shivered a little and turned her hand over to grasp Wanda's. "I couldn't focus. There were all these bits and pieces of memories, and none of it made sense. Still don't, a lot of them." She bit her lip. "It's okay as long as I'm focussing, but if I stop, I go back into the whole crazy thing again. What if I'm like this for good?"

Fingers slipped in between Amanda's and held on tight. "We are going to make damned sure that never happens," Wanda said and the steel in her voice dares anyone to try and prove her wrong. "Right now we have you back and that was the most important part. When you're rested more and everyone's come by, we'll figure this out. Rom will have London in a headlock before she let's it take you again." Perhaps she should give Stephen a call later, she thought. Recovering from the astral plane's hissy fit or not, he might have some good information about this entire thing.

"You should have been the Warrior," Amanda said with a small smile, squeezing back. "I swear, just when you think your life can't get any crazier..." She shook her head and changed the subject. "How is everyone? Remy said something about fighting London?"

At that, Wanda pulled a face. "I had to tell Agatha I'd been hit by a train," she said dryly. "She did not believe me for a second but it was better than trying to explain the fact that I'd been face to face with the history of London's law and order. Gog and Magog were rather nasty, though the Roman and his pointy sword wasn't exactly a pushover, either." She sighed and the expression on her face turned to one of the long-suffering. "Once a degenerate, always a degenerate apparently."

"London doesn't like strangers." Amanda's expression went a little vacant. "She makes you her own and then looks after you. But stir the sleeping beast and she'll fight back with all the strength of the lioness protecting her cubs." She rubbed her hand across her brow, blinking at Wanda. "Sorry, zoned again. You were saying you had to fight giants?"

That had been a little creepy but Wanda kept her voice and expression the same. It was going to take some time for Amanda to completely shake London's grasp. "Giants," she replied mildly, "a regular bobby, a horribly cliched bit of a bloke from the 1970s...thought the watchman was my favorite. Him, I set on fire. It was a long night but thanks to your timely intervention at one point and my sheer stubborn tendencies of returning the beating, I got out in mostly one piece."

Amanda winced. "Sounds like you were kept busy." She paused, and then admitted. "I don't remember doing anything, Boss Lady. Inside London... it was kind of weird. 'S all jumbled."

"Would it help matters," she began, "if I told you that you managed to do it with a number of other people, as well? We had several sightings of you while we were in the thick of things. Jubilee managed to avoid being turned into kindling because you popped up in a TV screen, for instance."

"I did? Huh." Amanda was amused at the image. "Well, glad I could do something then. Besides start all this off." She leaned back on the divan, resting her head on the back. "London was fighting back against something. Not the Trenchcoats, you were just in the way. But something else."

Half-turning, Wanda tucked one leg up under her body and rested her chin on her palm. "What was it?" she asked. "And more importantly, is it gone? I would enjoy avoiding anything else that this old lady might have up her sleeves. Never thought I'd say this but for a moment I rather hated London's rich, diverse and long history."

"Someone tried to open a door." Amanda closed her eyes, voice becoming slightly dreamy. "But instead of getting in, they let something out. They didn't expect that. It's gone now... London's gone back to sleep. She won't wake again, unless she's needed."

Wanda scowled. "Brilliant, all we need is some moron running around, opening magical doors in places he, or she, shouldn't be at." She quirked an eyebrow at Amanda. "Think we should put this idiot on our radar?"

"They don't belong here," came the reply. "Not really. But they're trying to make this place their own." Then she seemed to rouse. "Bloody hell, not again. I think I need to get back to New York, Wanda, see if I can't shake off this whole mystical babble shite."

"Agreed. The sooner we can get you back home, the sooner you can shake London off of you." Though they'd all be keeping a closer eye on her even there - she couldn't imagine what would happen if New York decided to take a shine to Amanda. She rubbed at her face. "But despite the mystical babble, it looks like everything else is back to normal...?"

"On the surface, any way." Amanda's voice dropped a little. "There's... gaps. In my memory. Stuff I don't remember until someone brings it up, and then it's all there, all at once. I think I'm going to need to sit down with Betsy or Ms. Frost and have one of them poke around in there."

"That's a good idea," Wanda said. "The last thing you want is something important to pop up, or lay dormant, when you least expect it to do so. There was a reason after Chthon that I requested the professor to unlock all the memories I had missed while I had been...otherwise occupied."

"It started coming back, when I was in the art store." Amanda's throat tightened. "There was someone I lost once, a friend..." A flash of an image, a body on a floor, blood pooling around his head. She squeezed her eyes shut. "It... hurts. The memories. Some of them are so..." Words failed her.

Reaching over, Wanda tugged Amanda closer until she could tuck the younger woman against her side. She pillowed her chin amongst soft, blond hair but only thought 'Charlie' without giving voice to it. "Don't force it," she suggested. "And if you get overwhelmed, reach out to us, all right? We'll be here."

"I know." Amanda let herself lean against Wanda, eyes still closed. Safe. "Even when I was completely balmy, I think I knew you lot were out there somewhere. 'S why I kept looking."

"We can be a stubbornly single-minded group at times," Wanda mused, breathing out as something that had been tied up for two weeks unclenched inside of her. "God help anyone who gets in our way."