Auld Lane Syne - Precipice (backdated)

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Wade, Adrienne, and Emma meet Molly's parents. They do not make a good first impression.



"I thought you said she'd be safe here!" Alice turned on Emma, eyes blazing. "What the hell is going on? Look at her! She's a wreck!"

"Alice..." Gene put his hand on his wife's arm, reminding her with a touch that they weren't amongst friends or allies.

"No, Gene!" Alice jerked her arm away, too upset for the moment to think of such things. "They said she'd be looked after here and instead she's worse than ever! I want to know what they did."

"We did nothing," said Emma and her voice was as cold as her name. "And everyone in this school is dedicated to keeping Molly as safe as any young mutant can be, with the world the way it is. Is dedicated to keeping every student safe." Emma's powers reached outwards as she spoke, a touch here, a caress lighter than feather-touch there, gathering information. "This is old damage manifesting in Molly's mind."

Alice bristled. "I don't like what you're implying, Ms Frost," she replied, just as coldly. "Are you saying one of us did this?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't anyone at the school," Adrienne muttered, coming into the medlab with Wade and standing by Emma. "And we know now that it wasn't that kid. So I'd say my sister's doing a bit more than implying."

"These are them?" Wade asked, bringing up the rear and completing their little group of grownups. As he looked toward Emma for confirmation, the mercenary began thinking about Mexican summers as quietly as he could because otherwise, he was going to focus on all the things these people had probably done and he'd get angry, which wouldn't lead anywhere good but hey, at least he didn't have a gun on him. Rolling waves, excessive heat, margaritas served by pretty girls - Wade concentrated on that.

"Last I noted, Ms Frost, you weren't faculty here. And I seem to remember your sister is a professional model of some stripe. Either way, I'm not interested in any of your opinions about my daughter. Where is Xavier? He made the commitment to keep my daughter safe, he's the bloody psychological expert, and I want to see him now!"

“I am, in fact, part of the faculty, Mr Hayes. I’m simply on extended leave. And my sister is perfectly qualified for her current position.” Emma’s voice was still cool, trying to provide an anchor for the building emotion of Wade and Adrienne, even as the result of her investigations into the minds of the Hayes made her own emotions threaten to spill over. “And neither of those matters are important. What is important is what is happening inside Molly’s mind and my capacity to evaluate that is at least the standard of Professor Xavier. Molly’s mind is very fragile right now and it is not a good time for her to have to deal with displays of unpleasantness.” Emma’s voice was iron-hard, reminding Adrienne and Wade to try and hold emotions in check in front of Molly, for the sake of the girl’s mind.

"It`s very convenient that the moment someone questions just what you`re up to happens to not be the 'right time'." Gene shot back, a low menace creeping into his voice. "I entrusted Molly to the Professor, and not some trio of mutant dilettantes looking to play saint before a night out of clubbing and cocaine. I am her father, and I did not give any of you the right to play with my daughter's mind. So why don't you kindly fuck off and get the Professor before I call Child Services in on the lot of-"

“Oh, really,” said Emma, cutting Gene off mid-sentence. “You’re going to try “daddy knows best” on me? I know exactly what daddy’s can do to their daughter’s minds.” She stalked forward, her normally cool demeanour dropping away and her voice sizzling with anger. She made no attempt to hide her contemptuous rage as she drew herself up to her full height and stared Gene in the eyes. “I know exactly what they can do to fuck their little daughter’s minds over sideways without even touching them. And then,” and her voice became the lash of a whip, “I grew up. And I became a telepath. One of the best the world has ever seen. And I can read your daughter’s mind like an open book and I know exactly what you’ve done to Molly. And I want to know,” Emma took a step back, so her rage was suddenly directed at both Gene and Alice, “why you’ve done it to her? Why you’ve done this to her?” Emma’s pointing finger stabbed backwards, at Molly in her bed.

"You have no idea what we've done!" Alice retorted, anger flaring with the sudden guilt that perhaps she had something to do with Molly's condition. "Or why we did it! None of you are parents, you've never feared for your child, tried to protect her! So where do you get off coming down all high and mighty at us?"

Adrienne had bristled at Gene's line about the mutant dilettantes and had shifted a bit closer to Emma as if proximity would help her draw on Emma's calming influence. But then Emma lost her cool, and then Alice lost hers, and Adrienne still didn't really have any idea what was actually going on, what exactly Emma had found that the Hayes had done to Molly, but the rarity of seeing her sister get so uncharacteristically enraged scared the crap out of her. So for once, she decided to take on the role of the calm Frost sister. "Hey!" she shouted in an attempt to shut Alice up and dissuade an attempt from Gene to start up again, "we spend more time with the kids here than any of their parents do, so we get to be high and mighty because we fear for and protect all of them. Now, do I need to go get a hose to cool everyone the fuck down, or can we all try and remember that we're supposed to be helping Molly and recognize that none of this is helping?"

"What'd you do to her?" Wade asked, keeping his voice calm and his expression as neutral as possible while attempting to maintain the image of rolling ocean waves at the forefront of his mind. Assault rifles and all their many varied uses wouldn't be any more helpful than the arguing. "Molly's lost months. Most of this year, in fact. So what the hell did you do to her and how could you possibly justify doing it to your own daughter?"

"We were protecting her!" Alice's voice held a note of hysteria. "We were keeping her safe! Which is more than what you people managed!"

"Keeping her safe?" Emma was scornful. "When I first met Molly, I was worried she had a head injury but what she's got is your grubby little psychic fingerprints all over her mind. Her head is full of holes. All the way back. Tiny little ones eating out her mind from the inside, eating away her past. And now they've turned into one great big one that's eating her mind. And you," Emma's finger jabbed at Alice, then curled into a fist that Emma wrestled down to her side even as she wrestled down her own emotions, "did it to her. Right back at the beginning, all those little holes, I can feel you all over them. What did you do to her?" The last sentence was a strangled whisper as Emma tried to get herself back under control, to try not to trigger another seizure in Molly.

But it was too late, judging by the girl's expression. Curled up tightly in the medlab bed, Molly's face had turned from growing nervousness and fear the louder their voices got to a sudden blankness in the blink of her eyes. The tenseness in her body went slack, and she let out a gasp, then frowned.

"Why's everyone so mad?" She paused. It'd been just Dr. Frost and Adrienne and Wademan a second ago and now there were more...Holy moly!

"Mom? Dad! How did you guys get here?" she said, breaking out into a bright grin. Dude, this was awesome! But wait...they were still kinda mad. And hadn't been there before.

"Um...am I being Punk'd?"

It was one thing to be told about the episodes - it was entirely another to witness one. And the terrifying blankness of Molly's mind for that moment... Alice rushed to Molly's side, engulfing her in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," she said, muffled against Molly's hair. "I didn't know."

Gene's face fell at his daughter's words. "Alice? Is this-"

Alice looked up, her face stricken. "They're right, Gene. We did this. I did this. And I don't know how to fix it."

Emma took several deep breaths, slowing her own breathing and heartbeat until the White Queen mask was safely back in place. “How long have you been doing this?” she asked Alice. “Why were you doing this? Why would you...” Emma stopped for a moment, breathed again, “strip memories out of your own daughter’s mind?”


"To keep her safe." Alice couldn't face those eyes and turned back to Molly, hugging her tightly again. "There were... things that happened, that were too traumatic for her to know. She couldn't cope, so I... took them away." Her voice choked. "Please, I meant no harm. I only want the best for her."

Emma short, sharp telepathic probe was only meant to be superficial, but even that was enough to identify the depth of genuine concern and love that Alice felt for her daughter, overlaid with remorse. There were secrets there, Emma knew, but with the state Molly was in, this was not the time to explore them. Emma shook her head sharply. “There’s nothing I dislike more than having to unpick the work of amateurs,” she said sharply. “But I can do it. I will need your help, at least at first, to get some idea of what you’ve done that’s set up this – feedback loop.”

~Can you live with that?~ Emma sent out briskly to Wade, even as she spoke to Alice. ~Do you have enough Mexican margaritas to stop you killing them both? I understand the attraction, but I really do need them. I can save more of Molly if I work with them.~

Wade shot an evaluating kind of look toward both Alice and Gene, then nodded to Emma. He could handle not killing them - as long as they were useful. Walking over to where Alice was still clutching Molly, he tipped his head to the side and gave the young girl a smile as he held his hand out so she could knuckle-bump it. "Heya, half-pint. You want me to stay or go? I'm good either way."

From the serious looks on everyone's faces Molly could tell something was going on, something big. Really big. Blinking rapidly, Molly returned the knuckle bump with a heavy dose of confusion.

"Um...stay. And...maybe tell me what's going on?"

Emma smiled at Molly. “I don’t think we’ve been able to until now,” she said. “Sometimes, when people get sick, it’s a bit hard to work out why. But I think we might be able to do something about that now. Your parents have come along to help us work out why your head isn’t quite hard enough at the moment. Between all of us we’ll have you better in no time.”

They had better, added Emma to herself. If Molly’s parents did anything to make this worse, there were not going to be enough Mexican beaches in the world to stop Emma hunting them down and murdering them.