Half An Ocean Away: Not Going Alone

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

After seeing Angel's journal post, Scott goes to look for the girl in question, and find out exactly what is going on.



Scott was in a rush, he wasn't exactly running down the corridor towards the main entrance...but he was certainly moving fast. He'd just checked the journals and spotted Angel claiming she was heading back to England, no more explanation than that. He rounded the corner hoping that he had made it here in time to cut her off.

Scott had exactly two seconds on Angel. She was just making her way down the stairs - two at a time, she was in a rush. She had a little over four hours to get to the airport, and she was freaking out now. Passport! Where's my passport? Oh, it's in my hand. Cell-phone?! Pocket. Bag on back. Head on shoulders. Okay, I can do this. Let's go. As lost in thought as she was, she didn't see Scott until it was almost too late. She skidded to a halt just before things - and people - went crash. "Oh, Mr. Summers! Wow, sorry about that. Hi! Um, sorry, I kind of need to...be...places...I'll talk to you later!" And she turned to run again.

"What happened, Angelica?" Scott asked in alarm. The note had been brusque enough to send alarm bells ringing, but that was nothing when compared to the frazzled state the girl was in now. "Why the sudden rush to get to England like this?"

It would take less time to explain than it would to come up with explanations as to why she couldn't explain, Angel decided as she turned back to Scott, taking a deep breath and launching into speech. "I got a call this morning from one of my friends in England, apparently the girl I was living with while I was doing study abroad there - Chloe, remember Chloe? - well she's disappeared, nobody's seen her since Saturday and that's a really long time for no one to see her, and she hasn't updated her blog or Twitter or Facebook and she loves updating those and the fact that she hasn't is bad, bad, bad, and she hasn't called her parents, and the police haven't found anything, and there are no streetlights on our street, and I know there isn't much I can do even if I go there, but really, I can't just sit here knowing she's gone, I need to at least try to do something, you know?" Finally Angel stopped to take a breath.

"So she hasn't been seen for five days?" Scott asked. "Did you consider she might just have gone on holiday or something. You were pretty upset by what happened and I assume she must have been as well. And school's never easy, perhaps she just needed to get away completely for a while." Scott knew there were times when that's how he felt. "Besides, I understand that you feel like you've gotta do something but what exactly are you going to do? Alone in London without any information or backup?"

"First question I asked, but she wouldn't go somewhere without telling someone, you know? She's way too responsible, even if she did just want to get away she would have been like, 'Don't call me, don't text me, I'll be back in a week.' Or she would have told her parents." Angel huffed, tugging at a lock of hair. "I don't what I'm going to do," she admitted after a moment. "See if I can find something the police couldn't? I really don't know. I'll figure that out. Or maybe I won't. Either way, I can't just sit here."

"You can't just run off alone either," Scott pointed out. "How do you think we'd all feel if you had left with only that note? I understand that you're worried about your friend Angel, but there is a better way of doing this than rushing into it head first and not gathering and information. It's stung us before in the past so the least we could do is learn from it."

Ouch. Angel rubbed the back of her neck, fidgeting uncomfortably. "It's not like I'm running away and never coming back," she said quietly. "I just...I need to do this. Maybe I don't have all the information I need, but I have enough." She could tell Scott was trying to stop her, and that wasn't happening. "And there's nothing I can do from here that I haven't already done."

Scott shook his head sadly, he couldn't blame her for wanting to help her friend, if it was Kurt or Warren he'd have mobilized all the X-men to help them. Nothing would stop him, and nothing would stop her, but he'd seen too many people get hurt in situations like this and he wasn't going to let it happen again. "You can't run at it in a panic like this Angel, you're part of a team. We're meant to support one another if something like this happens. You don't need to do this alone, let us help."

Hmn. That sounded strangely familiar. Angel sighed, tangling her fingers in her hair. "England is my problem," she replied finally. "If I hadn't screwed up so badly, I would still be there, and this may not have happened." It was roundabout logic that probably wouldn't make sense to most people, but it did to Angel. After all, if she'd still been in England, she would have been with Chloe that night. She would have been able to get them away from anyone who tried to hurt them. "I can't ask people to help me fix my mistakes."

"No, you can't anyone to help you fix your mistakes, that's all on you," Scott agreed, "But friends and team mates help one another, you don't need to ask for that to happen. Let's be honest it'll happen even if you tell them not to help."

True enough. Angel pulled out her cell-phone to check the time. Three hours and fifty minutes before her plane took off. "Do you think I need help?" She asked quietly.

"Yes," Scott confirmed without hesitation, "Your friend's in trouble, at hte least you'll need someone to help you see things clearly. And two pairs of eyes are always better than one."

Well, no arguing with that. Angel raised an eyebrow at school as she stowed her cell-phone away again. "Are you volunteering to help me, Mr. Summers?"

Scott smiled slightly, well he should have seen that coming. "Sure," he agreed, "If you don't mind me tagging along. Just let me leave a notice, grab my bag and we can head out to the airport."

"Great. Um...try not to take too long?" Not that Angel was in a hurry or anything. But she was already imagining how many speed limits would have to be broken in order to get to the airport with enough time to spare.