So, what did you do last night?

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Wednesday, lunchtime and late afternoon, the news of Jamie's nighttime visitor gets out.

Jamie has odd sandwich habits and Rahne has an excellent nose.

Turkey, ham, roast beef, bread . . . Jamie was considering the possible merits of actually adding potato chips to the sandwich instead of just next to it on the plate, having popped a slice of turkey into his mouth to aid the thought process, when a noise made him turn around.

"Mh, h'ro, R--" He swallowed hastily. "Hey, Rahne. I'm making lunch, want some?"

Rahne started slightly as if she hadn't been expecting him to say anything. "I -- no, no thanks. I'll fix something."

"You sure? Got a bunch of stuff out already, it's no trouble."

"I'm fine. I'll fix something... later on." She took a step back toward the door.

Jamie blinked in surprise. "Hey, Rahne--is everything okay? I mean, I didn't forget my deodorant this morning, did I?"

Rahne winced slightly. "...Not exactly."

"Well . . . what, then? I mean, if I've done something to make you mad at me, or something, I'd like to try and fix it . . ."

"'Tisn't --" She apparently got stuck on what it wasn't.

"Well--we're friends, right? So, if I'm doing something that upsets you, I don't wanna do that anymore--only, if I don't know what it is, I'll just end up stopping random stuff." He offered a tentative smile. "It isn't the sandwich, is it? I know the mixing of three lunchmeats is probably a crime against taste, but look, I haven't even put the potato chips in yet, it's fixable."

Rahne smiled a little at that. "The sandwich is fine."

"So what is it then?"

"I donnae...." Rahne sighed. "Ye smelled like Kitty already this morning before breakfast."

" . . . Oh."

"Aye. Well. I ken a lot of the people here are... doing... that sort of...." Rahne was very red by this point.

"Oh!" Jamie's ears were just as red. "No, no. We're, uh. No. Not, um, that is, we're not . . ." He paused. "Okay, the thing of it is, we haven't even talked about, um, that yet. Much less done . . . er, well, okay, with the smell, I guess--but there's a good explanation for that!"

Rahne stared at him. "...I -- I'm sorry then. I hadna wanted to think... but...." A pause. "What is it? I mean, the explanation. If ye donnae mind...."

"Well . . ." Jamie craned his neck to look past Rahne through the door; nobody coming, good. "Well . . . she got some bad news the other day. Kitty did. And, so, it hit her pretty hard, the news, but being around me helps. So I told her, if she wakes up in the middle of the night and needs anything, I gave her a yardstick to poke through the wall to make sure it's safe, and then she can come wake me up, or curl up next to me and go back to sleep, whatever. So she's been doing that sometimes. But that's all we're doing." Jamie rubbed the back of his head. "Tell you the truth, any, y'know, more, would, I'm not sure I'm ready for it."

Rahne leaned against the side of the doorway and let out a long breath. "I -- I'm glad. Er, that is, I'm very sorry about the bad news -- I'll help if I can, but I understand if ye cannae tell me -- but I'm glad that's... the explanation. I'd no thought ye'd... well."

"I'm pretty sure she wants it kept private Wouldn't even have said as much as I did only, well, I didn't want you going off thinking we were doing stuff we shouldn't be. But if I think of something you can do, I'll ask her if it's okay." He grinned. "I'm glad that's all it was. Nah, we're being good--I mean, for one thing, there's the kids in there, and then . . . this'd be a really awful time to start any of that, I think. Too much stress."

"I think the stress isna stopping some people," Rahne said drily. "But... och. I'm glad that was all, too, and I was... mistaken just now instead of before."

"Well, I meant for the two of us, anyway. Other people . . . do what they do, I guess, whether or not it turns out to be a bad idea." He grinned. "Want that sandwich now?"

Rahne smiled weakly. "Aye, I think I would. Thank ye, Jamie."

"Okay then. Potato chips on the side or in the sandwich?" He cocked his head. "And . . . anything else bothering you, I could maybe help with?"

"Why would ye put them in the sandwich?" She looked puzzled, then shrugged. "Well, why not? And... I'm all right enough. Near everybody seems to be a bit mad just lately, but the rest I... ought to be getting used to, I suppose."

"To find out what it tastes like. And I dunno, I think there's a point where getting used to stuff starts becoming compromising what you believe in, and you don't want to do that or else what's the point of believing in anything? Assuming you were talking about people doing the kind of thing you thought I was doing, and not the invasion of the week, which I hope I never get used to."

"I can -- get used to other people doing it without believing 'tis the right thing to be doing." Rahne paused. "I think. I wonder, though." She sighed. "And if I spend much time as a wolf at all, I can tell. Or at least have a fairly good idea. And that's just the ones who donnae announce it right out loud."

"That's gotta be annoying."

"I suppose I could spend less time as a wolf. I've been keeping to human form or something close with the bairns lately, so there's no worry about Miles getting close."

"Oh." Jamie blinked. "Yeah, that'd get . . . either embarrassing, painful or very furry depending on what happened. 'S too bad, though, I know the kids like playing with you."

"Embarrassing. We tested while I was in a transitional form." She paused. "And dressed."

"Well, good. Not about the embarrassing, but at least you know, and at least it's not that bad."

"Aye. So I can have fur a bit if some of them like, anyhow."

"What 'if?'" Jamie grinned. "The way I hear it, you're more popular than video games."

Rahne laughed. "Well, I might not go that far...."

"More popular than video games they've already played?"

"Possibly."

"There you go, then." Jamie placed a decorative potato chip on top of Rahne's sandwich and handed it to her. "None of 'em want to hear Red Riding Hood anymore, y'know."

"I donnae think I ever tried telling them that one myself."

"I tried a couple weeks ago. One of 'em had actually looked up 'defamation of character.'"

"You're joking...."

"Would I--no, wait. Do I look like I'm joking?"

Rahne inspected him. "'Tis hard to tell sometimes," she said solemnly.

"Okay, good point. Not joking, though. Had to switch the story to Little Red Riding Wolf before they stopped throwing things at me."

"Now how did that work?"

"Exactly like the original story, only she was going to her grandmother's den with a basket of raw steak, and had a run-in with the Big Bad Woodcutter, who tried to disguise himself as Red's grandmother, only he forgot that this meant he'd be in a tight confined space with two wolves who didn't like him much, and Red bit him on the butt while they were chasing him away."

"Oh... my." Rahne had taken a slightly crunchy bite of sandwich about midway through this explanation and had tears in her eyes by the time she managed to swallow it and become capable of speech again. "...I hope she brushed her teeth after."

"Oh, yes. Her grandmother insisted."

"That's good."

"Just like washing hands before dinner, really. It's hard to appreciate a good steak with the taste of woodcutter in your mouth."

Rahne put down the sandwich and looked at it. "...Aye, I think it would be."

"Sorry." Jamie grinned. "The kids like the gory details."

"I've noticed that."

Jamie eyed her for a moment curiously. " . . . I go and put my foot in my mouth again?"

"Not... exactly.... Well, ye ken the soldiers who were after Mr. Wisdom came in our rooms for hostages."

". . . Yeah. I barely even turned around before they tranked me and got Miles and Artie."

"And then another of you went off on Mr. Summers's motorcycle and got Ms. Blaire, aye? They didn't... trank us. Not right away anyhow. Clarice threatened them with a fencing foil and then teleported.... I bit the one who grabbed me."

"Oh. How're you feeling about that? I mean, if you don't mind."

Rahne determinedly took a large bite of her sandwich and chewed it thoroughly before swallowing and replying in a low voice, "Upset. It didna -- it didna do anything but hurt him. I didna stop him at all. But I -- it could have helped. Maybe. Except I didna quite do it because it might help; I thought it might, only I was thinking as little as I could in case I stopped myself, and I wanted to hurt him." She stared at the sandwich. "I liked it."

"Ouch." Jamie stared at his own sandwich for a moment. "I guess I . . . I don't really know what to say. I mean . . . I'm glad you told me, I don't think that's something you want to just bottle up, or anything, because it could be bad, doing that, but at the same time . . . maybe you need to talk to somebody who actually knows about this stuff, you know? I mean, friends'll only get you so far."

"I donnae like that I liked it -- I'm not going to start making a habit of biting people -- ye ken that, aye?" She looked worried.

"Oh, of course, obviously. It's just, it's bothering you, and maybe somebody like the Professor or Dr. MacTaggart could help with that more than I can."

"Or that Dr. Samson...? Maybe when things settle down a bit. I'm not so bothered as to be running off in the snow or in a sulk and so on, not now."

"Yeah. I've sort of thought about talking to him myself--I mean, if he's not too busy, because, yeah, not on the verge of running off either." Jamie shrugged. "Couldn't hurt, though."

"I wouldna mind going back home." Rahne sighed. "I'm glad to know some of the people here -- you're one, of course -- but.... I ken Ms. Blaire thinks having it in the journals is enough, and I think I heard Shinobi muttering how it wasna important, but I still think they should have said something about the army when they were inviting people here."

"Yeah, that was kind of a weird thing--I mean, my parents sent me here because it was safe and I could socialize with people, and then I get here and find out they'd had all that stuff happen practically the week before. I'd still have come, I think, if Mom and Dad would have let me. And I wouldn't trade being here for still being stuck at home, that's for sure."

"Still seems they should have told people."

"Well, yeah."

"I'm no sure whether Reverend Craig would still have sent me," Rahne admitted quietly. She frowned at her sandwich, then lifted her head sharply. "I do think I've been able to do a wee bit of good here though. And that's something."

"Definitely. I dunno if I'd call it a 'wee bit,' though, the kids are important."

"Well, they've the other staff to take care of them. Still, I suppose I help them too -- they do have a hard time with all the nonsense going on...."

"I don't get asked to ad-lib fairy tales so I don't malign anybody else, y'know." Jamie cocked his head. "Maybe we should do something special to help take their minds off it?"

"'Twould be nice." Rahne took a bite of her sandwich and chewed it thoughtfully. "Ye ken... since the talk about the Red Cross work, I started looking about a bit for something the bairns could maybe do too. There were some other things, but I did see that some of the animal shelters ask for people to come in... wash things, groom the animals, exercise them, even just play. I was thinking they might have fun with that -- if 'twould be allowed."

Jamie grinned around a mouthful of his own sandwich, then swallowed. "That sounds great! You should ask the Professor, I'm sure he'd say it was okay."

"I think... I think I will. I can call some of the places and see if they'll mind -- over us being mutants, or the idea of a wee horde of children at once, or anything like that -- and then I'll have something to ask him about."

Jamie's grin took on a mischievous glint. "That sounds like a plan. And if any of them do mind us being mutants, I'll put 'em on my list of places to picket."

"Och." Rahne covered her face with her hands for a moment. "Well, I suppose that is a plan. Ye donnae think he'll mind my calling first?"

"Nah. Shows planning and initiative and stuff. It'll be fine."

"I'll do that then."

"Cool. Let me know how it turns out? And if you need any extra munchkin-wranglers when you go."

"Of course. And ye'd be a lot of help, aye."

"Looking forward to it, then. More chips?"


And later, Jamie has girl cooties and Alison has incriminating naked pictures.

A green head poked into the room, blue eyes looking about until Jamie was spotted. "Jamie?" the childish voice called out, leaning in further into the room. Miles grinned, waiting for a reacton as he held up a small piece of paper up.

Jamie perked up, and turning away from the half-a-scene on his computer screen (wherein the jester tripped over something and had an amusing pratfall) he grinned at Miles. "Whatcha got there, buddy?"

"Miles has note for Jamie! From Alison!" he trotted inside the room, arm still held aloft, the note fluttering a bit. He finished his delivery with a beaming smile, before scampering out of the room with a giggle, the words "Girl cooties!" ringing over his shoulder before he dissapeared.

"Yeah, yeah," Jamie muttered under his breath, "and two years after I have my revenge on Artie, little guy . . ." He opened the note, blinked at the short message: Girl cooties, huh? Got a second to spare for me? :) and went in search of its author.

Alison wasn't too hard to find, really, lounging about in the common room of the suite she and Lorna shared, the door having been left half-open by Miles on his rush to carry out his mission.

Jamie poked his head inside, then sidled the rest of the way in, note leading. "Girl cooties?" he said by way of greeting.

Alison grinned widely at the words, the way Miles had described the whole scene earlier this morning still fresh in her memory. "Well, that's how Miles put it earlier," she chuckles, waving for him to take a seat. "Said he'd woken up and Kitty was there?" Tilting her head to the side she watched him patiently, not a smidgen of accusation in her voice - merely curiosity, and a fair dollop of concern.

Jamie nodded resignedly. "Right, that. Didn't want them thinking anything bad was going on--which it isn't--so I didn't say keep it a secret. Rahne sniffed me out at breakfast, actually." He flopped down into a chair. "See . . . okay. All it is, is . . ." He frowned. "Okay, let me back up. I don't think she'd mind you getting the whole story, you were there for act one . . ."

Alison reached over and patted his shoulder slowly, giving Jamie time to collect this thoughts as she rose to her feet and started putting her guitar and notes away, having only really been doodling more than anything else. "Take your time to sort it out, then fire away, kiddo," she said, neatly leaning the case on a wall before wandering back over to sit on the sofa, giving him her full, undivided attention.

"Well." Jamie sighed. "Well, Kitty got an e-mail . . . God, almost a week ago . . . from her mom. Saying her dad had moved out. In January. And they were getting divorced." Jamie took a deep breath and forced his fists to unclench. "A stupid e-mail instead of telling her in person, and a month after it happened. So she came to find me, and I did my best to help, y'know, but it's going to take a while before she's better about it, and . . . I told her, any time, day or night, she needs me, she should come get me, and if she just wants to curl up next to me when she can't sleep, she could. And I cleared it with the guys. But it's not--it isn't enough, I don't know how to help her enough."

Leaning back on the sofa, Alison brought up her legs, wrapping her arms around her knees and giving Jamie a sympathetic look. "Must have been driving you nuts, trying to be there and make things right somehow, even though you know it's something so big it just can't be fixed..."

Jamie nodded tiredly. "I know it's just a part of her life now, something she has to figure out where it fits and what it means, but . . . she hurts. And I can't fix it."

Uncurling from the couch, Alison reached out to pat Jamie's shoudler again. "Well, that's not something anyone can just fix, sweetie." Blunt, perhaps, but true nonetheless. And Jamie looked rather tired at that, as she looked him over. With a small frown, she considered. "Have you thought of suggested she speaks to Dr Samson? He might be able to give her the tools she'll need to be able to face what's coming..."

"I know," he mumbled, but brightened up a little at the mention of the doctor. "I was kinda wondering about going to talk to him myself, if he came back again and wasn't too busy. Not for anything serious, just to sort of kick the tires, I guess. Do you think he could help?"

"It was nice talking to him, I thought," was the simple reply, accompanied by a wry grin. "And he did mention something about staying in touch. If you want to talk to him, and if Kitty wants to as well... I'm sure the Professor will arrange something." She nodded firmly at this. "I'll bring it up with him today, if you want."

"Well . . . I think I should see if it's okay with Kitty first. I don't want her to feel roped into anything, or trapped, or tricked. She needs to be able to depend on me."

"Of course. Didn't expect anything else. But..." and she gave him a stern look. "You alone wanting to talk to him is enough for me to go ask the Professor about it, kiddo. Keep that in mind, mmm?"

"Oh, I know that." He smiled. "I'm just--well, I'm okay, or at least I'm pretty sure I am. There's people who need to talk to somebody like him more than I do."

Yeah, Alison had heard that one before. "Wrong. Don't compare. It's not about who had it worse - it's about how bad it is for you, you know?" She looked out the window for a moment. "I'm going to have Miles talk to him as well - he's already seen him once and liked him. Won't hurt to see him more..."

"Oh, good--been worried about him, with everything that's been going on. And I'm not comparing, really. Mostly I'm just curious about what the doc'd have to say, and that can wait."

"Well, don't let it wait too long," was the amiable response, accompanied by a rueful grin and a wink. "I'm working on doing the same." She grinned while looking out the window, the sight of Miles and Artie running down one of the path catching her attention. "Guess you'll have to put up with 'ew, cooties' for a while, mmm?"

Jamie snorted. "Nothing I haven't been dealing with since we started going out. Someday, they'll hit puberty, it'll hit back, and I'll be there with popcorn."

"Mmm. Should I be buying a shotgun, is what I'm wondering," Alison wondered solemnly, not sure whether to be amused or worry. "Well, it's not for some time..."

"You might." Jamie snickered. "All the girls around here seem to think he's adorable already. Couple more feet of height and some shoulders, who knows what'll happen?"

"Augh," she muttered to herself, eyes widening slightly in dismay. "No no no. Not good, not good." She crossed her arms, scowling.

"And then he's going to go rebellious and, uh, paint himself blue, and wear himself out trying to find a kind of music you don't like that he can play loudly at all hours of the night."

Alison blinked once, then turned to give him a narrow eyed glare. "And I'll know who to blame, because you're the one who babysits half the time, mmm?" Lips twitching in amusement briefly, before she resumed her stern appearance.

"Yeah, you'll blame Lorna. I, of course, will be leading him down the path of righteousness." Jamie grinned angelically. "Like Grandpa always said, we have to teach the children the right way to live."

"Oh man, you're going to turn him into a prankster," she murmured, utterly appalled. And then smiled slowly. "You know... I've got these pictures..."

"I'm shocked and appalled that you'd--pictures?" Jamie's grin managed to stay on, but it looked suspiciously rigid. "Which pictures would these be?"

Yep. It was good to be Alison today. She grinned wider, a devilish glint in her eyes. "The ones your mother gave me?" Why play fair when you could cheat like this anyway?

"You know, it's so nice that you and Mom are such good friends. It's really too bad she isn't here to explain those pictures in their proper context, you know? I'll just have to do my best. They're all explainable."

The smile grew positively crocodilian. "She's very thorough, your mom is. I like that. Did you know she'd written out what had happened with each picture in the back? With little quotes and all. Very cute." She nodded wisely, the expression spoiled by the still evil grin etched on her face.

"You know, I love my mom, but sometimes she puts what you might call a bias on these stories. It's not her fault, really, she just doesn't always have all the available facts, and, uh, therefore, some of the stories aren't exactly completely factually true, or else what looks like the most obvious interpretation is a misleading one. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes, y'know, the words don't make sense."

Alison laughed outright at that, leaning back on the couch and shaking her head. "Oooh, nice one," she grinned in approval, eyes dancing with laughter. "And nice try, but no cigar. I already have your grandmother's phone number, and a few of those stories can be verified, you know." She waggled her eyesbrows, and chuckled again. "Think they might cheer up Kitty?" she blinked at the thought, sidetracked from her teasing of him.

Jamie looked a little wild-eyed. "No fair recruiting Grandma, she's supposed to be on my side." Then he tilted his head thoughtfully. "Y'know, they might. Can I borrow 'em for Saturday? I didn't plan around her getting the day off from ballet, so I've got this big hole in my schedule after lunch. I'll give 'em back, promise."

"Sure thing," Alison smiled warmly, not worried in the least - she knew Jamie would return them. She got up and walked to her room to retrieve the box, sitting down to work it open, smiling as she went through the puzzle. "If Kitty would like to keep a few, I don't mind..." she trailed off, handing him the open box.

Jamie grinned at the box, then reached in for the pile of pictures. "Thanks, I'll tell her. Dad gave you an easy one, huh?"

A faintly indignant look greeted that remark, followed by, of course, curiosity. "I'm guessing it is then," she snorted quietly, and shook her head. "Wonder what the more complex ones are like?"

"Well, the last one he made for me was this perfectly smooth, polished cube with no visible seams. Took me three weeks and a halogen spotlight to find out one of the sides was polarized plastic--you could see through it at the right angle--and there was one of those tilty-ball mazes inside. Then another week figuring out how to get the ball in the hole, which unlocked the box. Worth it, though--my own set of keys to the truck." He grinned reminiscently. "And I waited another month before I opened it in front of him, just so I could watch him drive himself nuts trying not to tell me how it worked."

Rich laughter greeted the last - oh yes, it was a family thing the pranking, no doubt about that. "Somehow, I'm not surprised," she said between chuckles, shaking her head. "Methinks it would have taken me a wee bit longer to find that one," she mock-shuddered.

"Well," Jamie said graciously, "you haven't had much practice. I'd better go find Kitty, though." He smiled. ". . . Thanks for not making a big thing out of this. I know it sort of looks odd at first."

Telling Jamie that this a house full of teenagers, and hardly unexpected was her first reflex, but she held it back - shrugging instead and smiling at him. "I know better than to worry - and I know well enough to trust you," she answered simply. "Let me know how things go with Kitty, if you think she won't mind, ok?"

"I will. Thanks again. Things ought to be a little better next week, unless Saturday gets called on account of our brand-new alien overlords don't believe in Valentine's Day."

"Well, they do that, refer them to me and I'll take care of re-adjusting their attitudes, hrm?" Waving him off, Alison laughed. "And let me know what Kitty thought of the pictures! I want to trade stories with her after!"

"Oh, yeah, I'll make sure not to forget that. I'd better write it down, I'm so absentminded. 'Course, I'm just absentminded enough to forget a pen, too. Gee, I hope I don't." He grinned. "I'm sure she'll jump at the chance. Try to leave me with some dignity, though, huh?"

"Heh heh heh. Sure, I'll do that," she winked at him cheerfully, glad to see him smiling.

"Right. See you later." Jamie rolled his eyes good-humoredly and slipped out the door.

Still chucklign to herself, Alison leaned back on the sofa again, turning to look out the window at the two young boys playing outside in the snow, their shrieks of glee audible despite the distance.