Nate & Cammie

[x-scorpion.livejournal.com]

Nathan and Cammie discuss her options and her future down by the lake.

The bad moods were coming and going, and presently they were still pretty dark. It was late, the sky was calm and stars peeked through. Cammie was on the lake shore, not very close to the boat house, just looking over the water. There were a couple places like this back home by a small creek. But memories of that were pasted together with the memories of the two days spent in the woods before she had managed to get a bus out of town.

The water here was calm, but her thoughts weren't. Everything had been going well, until a past she hadn't even known about came knocking at her door.

"So," came Nathan's voice idly from behind her - his approach had been utterly silent. "Am I talking to Cammie my employee on a sabbatical, or Cammie my former employee? You haven't quite been clear on that point, and I haven't heard from you."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure yet," Cammie said. She had gotten used to most of the people here being able to sneak up on her, as creepy as it was at first. "You'd be employing someone's weapon, you know."

Nathan blinked. And then blinked some more. And then laughed, because he really couldn't help himself. "Oh, dear God - is that all? Do you know how many of our core staff, including yours truly, are ex-brainwashed mutant supersoldiers?"

"No," she said, not finding it funny, "But I'm not a mind reader. And I'm really glad I'm not, all things considered."

"We talked about this," Nathan pointed out, emerging from the trees. "At least in relationship to me. Although admittedly, I may not have come out and said it." He looked down at her, the dimness hiding his expression. "Anyway, here's my relevant piece of advice. If you don't want to be someone's weapon... do something with your time that doesn't involve sitting around and reflecting on how much you hate being someone's weapon."

"It sounds easy... when that someone isn't your Mother. Though I do have to wonder if that subconsciously fueled my hatred of science before I dropped out of high school," after killing her boyfriend, "I mean, I know all that stuff, Kurt tells me about the same thing. And I get it, but... yeah. Still trying to process it, I think. I mean, it takes a special someone to think it's a great test of character to do some of what she did." Jake's fingers in the mail, a day thinking her parents were being mutilated.

Nathan sat down beside her. "My father and my uncle sent me to be turned into a brainwashed mutant supersoldier," he said. "I know what lows 'family' can sink to. And no, it's not something you can just shake off." He looked sideways at her. "But it is something you need to start working on. And there are worse places to do that than helping other mutants who've been used, abused, and neglected. Why do you think Elpis does so much work with mutant child soldiers?"

"Because the people who do that to the kids are douche bags," Cammie returned. "I don't want to be the thing she wanted me to be. I don't think anyone would."

"Defying the people who wanted to turn you into a thing is something. Doing it at the same time as you're helping someone else - it actually makes it feel better," Nathan said. "Not permanently, and not all that time." He smiled briefly. "But it's about the best painkiller there is."

"She seemed to think I'd be overjoyed at the whole thing, but yeah. I can see that helping," Cammie said and then laughed, "Though my part is just filing and letting Catseye answer the phone. I think I just need a few more days. To get my head back on right. She is totally not what I imagined my birth mom to be."

"That's okay. So long as you are planning to come back." Nathan laughed softly. "And your part doesn't have to stay filing and laughing at Catseye answering the phone, you know."

"But it's always fun to laugh at Catseye answering the phone," Cammie said. Her friend was so... good at it it was funny. And creepy, in its own way. "Educationally I think that's all I'm qualified to do."

"Then maybe you should be thinking about that, too." Nathan rose with a muttered groan as his back protested. "The only way out is forward. You can't go back, and if you stay stuck in the moment, eventually your head will explode from boredom."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that. Now I have even less idea of what I should do if I decide to lumber on with some sort of education," Cammie said. "Believe it or not, I wasn't happy to have dropped out of school the way I did."

The little flash of attitude didn't seem to register on Nathan. "There's something people around here have no shortage of, and that's opinions. Why don't you ask?" he said as he started to turn away. "Someone might have an idea you like."

"Yeah, before you head off then, what's your idea?" she asked, curious.

Nathan looked back down at her, smiling briefly. "You're not the science type," he said. "I think you knew that, even before you decided you didn't want any part of the family business."

"Yeah. Science is boring," Cammie said. "I knew that."

"I don't think you're the artistic type. And you're easily bored, so office work, finance, that sort of thing - not really you. So," Nathan said, turning again, "ask yourself what's left, and work with that."

"Maybe I'll find a place hiring people who like to punch things," Cammie said with a laugh.