Log: Scott and Marie, (Backdated to yesterday evening)

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Marie finally returns from Canada. She goes to talk with Scott and is surprised to finally start understanding some things.



It was late, so instead of checking for Scott in his office, Marie
headed to his suite. She'd given herself a few minutes of solitude in
her room as she dropped off her bag before going to find the team
leader, but there was really no use postponing it. Fingering the
now-white-again lock of hair on her head in nervous habit, she took a
deep breath, and knocked.

"Come in," she heard Scott call. As the door opened, he looked up to
see who it was - and couldn't keep the flash of relief from crossing
his features. "Marie," he said, a slightly hesitant smile on his face
as he rose. "You're back. Are you all right?"

"Right enough, Ah suppose," she said, trying to return his smile but
failing. "Learned a lot...just not the things Ah was hoping ta."

"I figured you and Christian hadn't turned up anything useful, when I
didn't hear from you before now," Scott said, sinking back onto the
couch. "Sit down? Tell me what did happen?" He didn't like some of the
little tell-tales in her demeanor. Whatever had happened, it hadn't
been good.

Marie sat on the edge of an armchair, letting out a sigh to steel
herself. "Christian had his own methods. Ah guess Ah thought...Ah
thought Ah could...and Ah couldn't."

Scott's smile turned rueful and then faded. "I see," he said, if
gently, and waited for her to elaborate.

"He gave me a choice, after we'd questionned the man we'd picked up.
Whether to let him live or die," she said, her voice soft.

Scott took a moment to consider his response to that. "I'm sure he
thought he was offering you something he would have wanted, in your
place," he finally said.

"But it didn't matter," she continued. "Ah made my choice and he
still..." Marie stopped and turned away, wiping the tears that had
begun rolling down her cheeks.

Scott's smile was brief, faint, and didn't have anything resembling
humor in it. "Maybe he thought your ethics had gotten in the way of
what you really wanted. Maybe it's what he wanted, and
he asked the question because he wanted you to have the same answer as
he did. Because you both lost Garrison."

"Ah don't know. Ah've been trying to forget it," Marie said. "You
know, the crazy thing is that Ah thought it was what Ah wanted. To be
like that."

Scott leaned forward slightly, frowning a little. "Since the attack,"
he said slowly, "or in general?" He had some inkling of her thoughts
on Magneto. They'd talked about it before.

"Both," she said. "Ah thought...Ah thought it would be different. And
then there Ah was, with this man tied to a chair, looking as
scared..." she bit her lip to cut off the words. "He was helpless. And
killing him would've made me like him."

"We all have to decide where we draw the line," Scott said quietly.
"Drawing it there - I can't blame you, Marie. It wasn't combat, there
weren't lives on the line."

"But he probably would've hurt more people if he wasn't locked up or
Mr. Kane hadn't...ended things. How do you decide how pressing the
lives on the line need to be?"

"And was there really no way to lock him up?" Scott said. "I know you
have some idea of just how many agencies would like to get their hands
on Magneto. There has to have been something to tie this man to the
Brotherhood, for you and Christian to have tracked him down in the
first place. Why not pass that information along? Or hell, call here
and have Charles call Nick Fury? SHIELD doesn't have to play by the
rules quite so scrupulously as the police."

"Mr. Kane said if anything we were the ones who had done something
wrong and so couldn't do anything legally against him. Ah don't think
that's true...Ah think we could have found another way than killing
the guy. Killing him....it's...well, it's like switching sides. That's
what they do. That's not what we do." It was like a little light bulb
had finally popped on in Marie's head, and a question she'd been
struggling with for years was finally answered.

Scott's expression had tightened slightly at her first comment. But
his voice was still even as he spoke again. "You know," he said, "I
think back to some of the arguing that was going on, after Manhattan.
Something hit me back then - it's why I didn't say anything at the
time. I think that some of the people who will kill, in the service of
good ends, honestly believe that they're the ones who make the hard
choices. That we who don't aren't up to... meeting a situation with
the sort of response it demands." Scott hesitated, an image of broken
bodies on a Manhattan street flashing through his mind. "And it is
hard. But choosing not to kill is just as hard. We take a different
kind of responsibility on ourselves, and we know that we're not the
only ones who may have to live with it."

Marie finally found herself able to renew eye contact with Scott, a
look of understanding passing between the two. "But there are certain
things that we can live with," she said softly, "and others that
making the living less worthwhile."

"Isn't there always? We function in the grays, Marie. It's always
going to be messy. But I think it's worth the effort." Scott's faint
smile came back. "You know what they say about slippery slopes? I've
always thought that staying safely at the top is as bad as falling all
the way to the bottom."