Rogue & Cecilia

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Rogue and Cecilia chat about their less-than-triumphant returns to Xavier's.

It seemed the library was Cecilia's only escape these days.

Things in the medlab had quieted down since the day the X-Gang returned from Eastern Europe. But both she and Amelia had been trying to make things a little easier on Jean, which meant Cecilia had a much fuller caseload of check-ups and follow-up visits these days. Plus, with Matt going back to school, her X-Corps duties had picked up again. Which meant wandering around Xavier's brought nagging and bugging and begging and bothering, all of which Cecilia didn't feel like dealing with today.

Which brought her here: Standing in front of a bookcase, trying to liberate a copy of Mrs Dalloway from the top shelf. She stood on her tiptoes and hooked her thumb into the spine, then tried to bring the book down.

Her grasp wasn't as solid as she thought. As the novel came down from the shelf, several others fell on the floor with it. "Joder." She kicked the bookshelf, then looked up sheepishly to see if she'd accidentally disturbed anyone else's peace.

"But Fernando, we musn't," she cried, turning away from his embrace. "I'm to marry your brother tomorrow. This can never be."

"You belong with me,Maria," he exclaimed, grabbing hold of her arms and pulling her forcefully towards her. "How can you deny our passion, our love?". He pressed his lips to hers, capturing her in a --"

BANG

Rogue was so entrenched in His Brother's Wife that when she heard the noise,she jumped up, floating in the air with her book falling behind her.

She saw Cecilia kicking a bookshelf, surrounded by a pile of books. Landing carefully, she walked over and started helping. "You okay there, doc? Missed your toes?"

"Oh, yeah, just... you know." Cecilia crouched down to pick up a few books, sighing. "A little mortified that this is how we're meeting face-to-face, and wondering if my descent into madness will ever end." She looked up from the books to smile at Rogue, hoping she sounded a little less crazy than she imagined she now sounded. "Hope I didn't disturb your book zen too badly."

Rogue straightened up and took Cecilia's books as well as her own. "Don't worry about it, doll.". She flew up and put the books in the right place before landing quietly. "If you were anyone else, I'd pretend to be reading something of quality but since it's just us girls, I can admit that Maria's heaving bosom can wait. I'm pretty sure she has a horrible misunderstanding with her true love, get into a perilous situation, realize what's truly important and then live happily ever after."

Rogue gave a wink and a smile. "A girl can dream, right?"

"I think I've had that dream," Cecilia said a little knowingly as she stood, her expression matching Rogue's. "Always a shame to wake up from it." She was proud to find that seeing the girl fly hadn't been as unnerving as it would have been back in 2004. Which reminded her.

"So," she said, trying to keep her voice at whatever level was appropriate to have an actual conversation in a library, "how's your triumphant return going? Already done that thing where you auto-pilot to a room, only to find out it's a bedroom now?" She'd done that. Twice. And both times, it was equally uncomfortable.

Rogue nodded her head dramatically. "I also can't keep track of who is a student, who is a teacher and who is just here. I feel like I'm just floating by, in this strange reality where everyone has a purpose but me." She shrugged her shoulders. "That being said, I get to catch up on quality reading, so there's that."

She leaned on the bookshelf and crossed her arms in front of her. "How're y'all doin' anyways? I think this is the first time you've been outta the med lab since that last mission. You been eating?"

"Oh, sure. Look at me. You think this is the body of a girl who forgets to eat while she's working?" Cecilia rolled her eyes. "Sooraya and a few others were ensuring my well-being the first few days. But honestly, between us?" Her eyes darted around, and she wondered about the wisdom of trusting someone she only sort-of knew by reputation. Ah well. "I live for shit like that. I mean, since I've been back, I've wondered what I'm doing here, and it was nice to actually have a useful, fulfilling thing to do again."

She shrugged, looking a little sheepish. "That's terrible, right? I don't want bad things to happen to people here, not at all. But I think I've been sort of... coasting since I got back here. Kind of like you just said. It's weird."

Would it be inappropriate to high five in the middle of a library? Rogue wasn't sure, so she settled for an Amen sister. "I hear you on the whole being busy thing. I think that's why I'm all over the place. I used to have a busy job, an apartment of my own, a cat....it's strange to have nothing to do.". She bit down on the corner of her lip slightly, and chewed. "Have you had much chance to re connect with people?"

"I guess?" Cecilia looked around. "Not too many people still living here that were here when I was here, and it's not like I was here that long anyway. Hank and Madelyn are gone, Dazzler's gone, I have no idea where Jean-Paul or Illyana are. Which makes it all even weirder, you know? That whole you-can-never-really-come home again thing. I keep looking around and expecting to see Shan stacking books, or something."

That was a ton of names, a ton of words and a ton of negativity. Yikes. "I'm sorry," she said, shifting her weight. She let out an awkward laugh. "There's not really anyone else around here who understands. Guess I'd been holding that in."

Rogue gave a knowing smile. "I absolutely know what that's about. I guess you can't just leave and expect everything to stay the same, huh?". She traced her finger along the spine of the nearest book, looking away from Cecilia. "Part of me keeps forgetting that I'm actually 28, and not that angry teenager I was when I first arrived. It's like there's two of me existing and I mean, I'm no stranger to conflicting voices but still...". She trailed off before suddenly giving a laugh. "My turn to apologize now. Are you sure you ain't got no secondary powers of persuasion? Here I am, just blurting things out. Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable."

"God, no, please!" Cecilia shook her head quickly, then looked down at the Virginia Woolf novel in her hands. "It's only weird because we're so different and evolved and rational," she looked back up, "or maybe more rational about the irrational, at least in my case. But also, like, here we are, back at this place and everything's kind of confusing in its typical Xavier's way. And it looks the same, which is so unnerving." She glanced down at the carpet. "I mean, seriously, Charles, spring for a remodel."

"Lord know he's got the cash," Rogue joked along. "But I get what you mean. Sometimes I wake up and think 'oh shit, I'm late for class and I got nothing to wear' and then I remember I'm a lazy good-for-nothing, and I roll over and go back to bed."

Rogue wrinkled her nose a little. "Okay, so maybe there's a bonus to coming back to your dad's house -- you get some leeway before they're at ya, asking when you're gonna get a job and all."

Cecilia laughed, then clapped her hand over her mouth remembering where exactly they were. She doubted she had anything close to the same relationship with Charles that Rogue did, she had to see the truth to that. "You got off better than I did - I got put to work and asked to help out around the house."

"Shhh," she whispered loudly, putting a finger to her lips. "Don't tempt him. Maybe he just doesn't know what to do with me is all. You start putting crazy ideas like that in his head," she threw up her arms dramatically, "and then before you know it, I'm washing windows."She lifted up in the air slightly to prove her point. "And I look terrible in overalls,let me tell you "

"Wanna get out of here? I think we should go get a coffee or something. Literature can wait."

"Oh, god, yes. Coffee sounds great." Cecilia realized how absurdly intense that sounded, but she shrugged it off. Whatever. Rogue knew she hadn't been sleeping. "I'm buying. A welcome home present, from one prodigal daughter to another."

"Sounds perfect," she responded cheerfully. "And when I get myself a job, I'll get the next one."