Geonosha - Stemming the Tide - Molly & Wade - Sleepless Nights

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Wade can't sleep, neither can Molly. He tries to help her out.


Wade hurt.

Defenestration was all well and good when you were joking about it on journals. But he'd forgotten how much it actually sucked.

Getting shot hadn't helped. Neither had hiking miles and miles to the stash spot.

Which really just meant he was laying as still as possible in an effort to keep from jarring anything that was partially healed. That meant he was wide awake, since he couldn't let himself relax. Finally giving up all pretense of sleeping, Wade very gingerly sat up. Camping cold was always a metaphorical pain. Now it was pretty literal, too. He would've killed for a cup of hot coffee or something. Or a steak. He really, really wanted a steak.

If he couldn't sleep and he couldn't eat a steak, he figured he'd do the next best thing and assuage his paranoia. Standing up slowly, carefully, he made his way to the area where the kids were sleeping.

Most of the small group were already asleep, their sleeping bags arranged haphazardly in a few clumps. The landscape in the clearing was unbroken except for a little bump that moved occasionally next to the lump where Meggan's sleeping bag was. It didn't say anything through a hint of brown hair was reflected in the moonlight.

Wade paused. "Hey, half-pint," he said, voice low so as to not disturb the people who were still sleeping. He moved stiffly to place himself between the kids and the treeline. Somebody was on duty keeping watch, but he wasn't taking any more chances. Consequently, he wound up a little closer to Molly.

Glancing over toward Meggan, Molly carefully climbed out of the sleeping bag and put her shoes on before tip-toeing over.

"I have a rock. In case somebody shows up," she said quietly, holding it up.

"Good," Wade said, nodding his approval even though she probably wouldn't be able to see him in the darkness. "It's always good to be prepared, just in case." Reaching over, he ruffled her hair, then considered sitting down. It wasn't the best position to be in if something actually happened, but at the same time, a dull ache persisted in his leg where he'd been shot and, while it wasn't sleeping, sitting would be kind of nice. "You slept at all?"

Molly shook her head. They said there'd be people to watch over them but the X-People were watching over them before and they all got taken too.

"Can't." There were too many sounds. It could've been a stormtrooper or a lion or a bear.

Wade sat, banking on his enhanced reflexes to get him off the ground fast enough if something went down. "It's weird, being outside like this when you're used to being inside, huh?"

Molly sat down beside him, almost like a shadow. She was quiet for a few long moments.

"I miss my forest. I don't like this one," she said, frowning as she glanced up at the trees.

"There are bad things in it."

Wade didn't say anything for a long moment, pulling a whetstone from a pouch on his belt and flicking one of his throwing knives into his hand so he could work on sharpening it. "I dunno," he said. "I think the forest itself is okay. It's just trees and vines and bushes and rocks. Nothing you don't know how to handle. But there're bad people out there. And sometimes that makes a big difference. But that's why there're good guys, right? And there're a lot of good guys out here now."

He wasn't going to lie to her - Wade couldn't do that. False hope led to disillusionment and bitterness. Molly was too young for that. He could, however, give her something else. "But I promise - really promise - I won't let them take you back, alright? You or Matt or Meggan. None of you guys." If it was the last thing he did, he'd make sure they got off this damn island.

Molly hugged her stomach, "Everyone says that," she said quietly, looking down at the ground. The moon didn't have a lot of light so she mostly saw shadows and bits of dirt and twigs and stuff.

"But we're still here."

For days and days. Like she was in the jail. She didn't know how long. Then she wasn't. But people got hurt. Even if the lady Ms. Frost the 2nd said they'd find the other and Ms. Frost the 1st one and she wanted to believe her...but they were still there.

"I know," Wade said. "But we gotta go back and get everybody else. We can't leave anybody with the bad guys. You can't..." He wasn't exactly sure how to say what he wanted to say. It wasn't like he was any good at positively motivating people. Getting them to shoot at him? Sure. No problem. Total cakewalk. Convincing a thirteen year old that her friends and teachers weren't going to be stuck on an island after being kidnapped? Not so much. "You can't give up, though, right? It's okay to be scared or angry, cause that's normal. But you can't give up. If you give up, then they've already won half the battle. You have to always be looking for the next thing, always be prepared - like with your rock. And never let them convince you that you have no options. There're always options."

"Like what?" Molly said. She stared at her rock. It felt good in her hand.

"I wanna be mad. But I'm just scared." Molly sniffled, holding back a sob as she wiped away some tears that sprung up.

"I'm really scared, Wademan."

She didn't wanna be.

Wade had to fight off the irrational - if justified - urge to kill every Genoshan soldier he came across. So, in an effort to distract himself and Molly, he flicked free another throwing knife and, holding it carefully, took his spare whetstone from another pouch on his belt. "Here," he said, offering her the whetstone and the knife. "I'll teach you how to take care of a knife and, if you get good with it, I'll give you your own set." Anything was better than letting her cry - Wade wasn't really good with tears. He sort of sucked with emotions and he was currently trying really, really hard to compartmentalize everything except the rage that had taken up permanent residence in his brain. "It's good for poking bad guys so they leave you alone."

Molly stared at the knife and stone thing in his hand. She frowned, shaking her head.

"It makes blood. I don't...I don't wanna make blood."

The stormtroopers made that and she didn't wanna be like them.

Wade nodded slowly. "I can see that." Flicking the knife back into his wrist sheath, he put the second whetstone away and asked, "You know how to mediate?"

Clenching her hands together in her lap, Molly shook her head. "Monet tried to teach me to help me with my powers but I kept falling asleep," she said, making a face.

Wade grinned despite himself. "Yeah, that can be a problem sometimes. Did Monet teach you how to breathe?"

Molly blinked at him with owlish confusion. "I already know how to breathe."

"There's lots of different ways to breathe, though. Shallow breaths, deep breaths - for meditation, I've always through that slow, deep breaths are best. The way I learned, you take a breath, hold it and count to three, then let it out slowly, count to three, and inhale again. So it's measured and it's harder to fall asleep because you're counting in your head," Wade said, sliding his second throwing knife into its sheath and putting the whetstone in its pouch. "Did she teach you that way to breathe?"

"She kinda...gave up after a couple of days cause we found another way to make my powers less sleepy..." Molly said. She missed Monet too.

"Why, are we meditating?"

"I'd like to. See, meditating helps me think. It also helps me calm down. And it helps me... I don't know. It's just good practice for a lot of things." Like keeping your rage at a low simmer instead of letting it boil over. Wade thought for a moment. "It'll help me forget that my ribs hurt if I'm concentrating on breathing. Wanna try?"

Glancing at him uncertainly, Molly finally nodded after a few moments. "Do I make the ohmmm pose?" she said.

"If you want, but you don't have to. Just breathe in slow," he did that. Then he held his breath and tapped Molly's shoulder once - twice - thrice - before exhaling slowly and tapping her shoulder three times again. "You see the rhythm?"

"I wanna," Molly said. It made her feel more like she was supposed to. Resting her elbows on her knees, Molly closed her eyes and tried to pay attention to the tapping, but she'd never really been good at concentration so she got the rhythm of her breaths a little off, taking two short breaths and one long one.

"Breathe from your diaphragm," Wade said, tapping his own to demonstrate. "Like. Expand your chest when you breathe, not your stomach. Let's try it for two taps." Sometimes smaller lungs needed more air, after all. Or at least more of it more often. Or something. "In... hold it... exhale... wait. Inhale..." He spoke quietly as he breathed slowly with Molly.

It took a few moments to get Molly to close her eyes cause she was afraid to, but she eventually did and tried to think about breathing and what Wademan was saying instead of the sounds everywhere. But every little noise made her turn her head toward it. Finally, she relaxed a little and tried to do what he said. After awhile the sounds disappeared.

After several minutes had passed and Molly's breathing had stabilized into rhythm they'd set, Wade quirked a small smile. "Good - you're doing real good. Think you can get some sleep?"

True to her word, when Molly said meditation made her sleepy, it really did. She didn't say anything to his question because she had already drifted off, and looked close to keeling backwards and sleeping right there on the pile of dirt anyway.

Wade waited another few moments before pushing himself up and then leaning down to scoop Molly up. She was tiny and not heavy at all. Moving back toward the other lumps that represented sleeping people, he settled her on her sleeping bag near Meggan, then sat down a few feet away. "I'm gonna keep meditating. You get some actual sleep. I'll be here if you need me."

The movement from point A to point B made Molly stir a little and she turned over on the sleeping bag, curling up into a ball.

"Don't....go too far...please...okay?" she murmured.

"No worries, half-pint," Wade said, voice still soft. "I'm staying right here. Promise."