Day Zero: Comedown

[x-pete.livejournal.com]

Some people aren't cut out for the big group celebrations.


As soon as he'd seen Alison and Betsy to medical attention, and promised them both he'd see them later, (for all the odds Al would remember) he'd slipped away. It hadn't been hard in the crowds - he'd seen a few people from Xavier's and Snow Valley, and there'd been congratulatory hugs and handshakes, and then he'd muttered something about "Sorry, got to shift, I'm looking for..." and he'd never even needed to get as far a name before they were nodding in agreement, doing much the same thing themselves.

Except he wasn't looking for anyone. It'd taken him a few hours to do it, but he'd made it across town to the office, where he'd grabbed his laptop and a few files and folders, and shoved them in the go-bag he kept in the office, and then spent a short while making sure that absolutely everything that needed to be hidden or locked away was exactly that.

Now he was standing on the balcony that ran between his and Remy's office, looking out over the twilight skyline that was still smoking in places, drawing on a cigarette from the one of the packs he kept in his desk drawer.

When he was nearby done, he bent and picked up the bag at his feet, then straightened, and looked at the cigarette in his other hand, the cherry glow fading to ash, there next to the filter.

"The cigarette of fucking victory." he drawled, his tone making a lie out of the words, his voice harsh, bitter and unforgiving.

He flicked it away, watching as the fleeting, falling, glow was lost in the gathering darkness below. Then he turned, went back to his office, and then left that place, heading back to Xavier's by whatever means he could find. Back to work.