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xp_logsSam, Paige, and Jay head up North.
Jay put both Daddy's guitar and the electric one in the backseat of the fancy car Sam'd brought down from New York. He'd already hugged the kids goodbye and told the youngest ones to be good for their big sisters. He was walking through molasses.
Nothing felt real.
"You got what you need for Columbia, Paigey?" he asked.
“Yep,” Paige said, shutting the trunk. “Anything you need before we go?” She came over and leaned into Jay’s side, trying to comfort him at least a little. With everything that had happened over the past few weeks, Paige wasn’t sure how this road trip was going to go, but hopefully the three of them would be able to balance each other out until they got to New York.
He needed Julia to be alive again. He needed his Ma. He needed his big sister. Jay leaned back against her and shook his head. What did it matter? Nothing mattered now anyways, Julia was dead and he was going to New York. "We dropping you off there?"
Paige wrapped her arm around him. “Uh. No, actually. I’m going to be just down the hall from you and Sam.” Well, it was going to come up eventually. Maybe telling Jay about her powers might distract him for a bit.
"Sam, how you'd swing that?" Jay asked as Sam brought the rest of the bags. He'd forgotten his at first. Only his guitars had seemed important. "Thought it was just for mutants?"
"What Paigey's failin' to say in plain terms is that she hid bein' a mutant from the both of us." Sam said, opening the driver's side door. "Ready to go?"
"Paige!" Jay said, and for a moment he was ribbing his sister and nothing had happened since Paige had told them about Columbia. "When were ya gonna me?" He said, as if he hadn't told his siblings about his wings- but he'd never dreamed of hiding anything from Paige. "You fly or what?"
“Uh, nope. Can’t fly. I do this.” Paige pulled off her skin and revealed a diamond form beneath. “Huh, that’s a new one.” Wanting to get on the road, she quickly shed her skin again, back to her normal form, and kicked some dirt over the pile of shreds before getting in the car.
“So, Sammy, we ready to go?” It was still awkward showing off her powers.
"Yeah." Sam said. "Just waitin' on you two knuckleheads to get in the car."
He quickly shot off a text to Clint letting the other man know that they were about to head out. He sighed, shoving his phone in the cupholder. Sam checked the rear view mirror and intentionally avoided Lucinda's gaze, instead choosing to give a small smile to his younger siblings. He didn't like the way Joelle scowled at him, but he didn't have time to fuss about it. Jay needed his attention right now.
"You know that's real cool right?" Jay asked, trying to be supportive of Paige even if his first thought had been that it was like a snake shedding its skin. But even if Paige's mutation was God punishing her somehow, he and God weren't on speaking terms right now. "I'd, uh, I'd have liked to have known sooner."
He didn't want to feel betrayed that she didn't tell him. He did anyway. (Didn't she trust him? He had always told her everything). He got into the backseat, giving one last look at Mel and the kids before tearing his eyes away.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t tryin’ to keep it from you but I was leaving for college and Ma was already upset I was leaving- there was a lot to worry about and I didn’t want there to be another thing I had to worry about…I’m just sorry.” Paige kicked herself internally for wanting so long to tell Jay and being forced to tell him now. It couldn’t have been worse timing.
They take a break from driving to see the mountains from the sky before fully leaving Appalachia.
It was about Hagerstown when the mountains started getting further and further apart and Jay felt like he was suffocating. He'd been alright through Kentucky, even through West Virginia.
He punched the center console of the car. "Fuck!"
His breathing was heavy all of a sudden. He was leaving. He was bein' sent away. This weren't going down to Tennessee for a weekend, or even out to live in Louisville. This was leaving home all together, being cast out. Leaving his mountains was going to kill his heart all over again.
"Fuck, Sammy, I can't hardly breathe, pull over."
Sam was driving in the left lane and cursed silently. "Give me a second to merge to where I can Jay, promise I'm gettin' over soon as I can."
It took maybe two minutes for other drivers to let them over, but to Sam it felt like hours. His baby brother couldn't breathe. All this, all this, and on the way to where hopefully none of it could touch them... Jay couldn't breathe.
He finally managed to pull over onto the shoulder and stop the car, whirling around to look at his brother. "What's wrong? How can I help?"
Jay was out of the car in a moment, not bothering to shut the car door behind him, wings spread wide as he collapsed to his knees and pounded the Earth. "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, she's sendin' me away from my home, where my angel is buried, my babies, my mountains," he said, not caring who saw or heard him.
He was breathing heavily, but he could breathe. When would he get to breathe his mountain air again. She was casting him out of his own bones.
Sam practically jumped out of the car to sit next to Jay. The icy rain on the ground didn't bother him, as he sat, feeling the wetness seep into his jeans. "Jay- Josh- listen to me, please? This ain't the end, you'll go back home, we'll see the mountains again..And we can sit here long as you please- but at some point, we're gonna need to keep goin' North. And when that time comes, I need you to know that we'll come back South again. Maybe not immediately, but we'll be back."
Paige leapt out after Sam, throwing herself down next to Jay.
“Shhh, Jay, it’s ok, just breathe, breathe with me. Deep, from your stomach and diaphragm.” She put a hand on Jay’s back, slowly rubbing circles. Jay needed to calm down before they tried to talk to him about anything.
Jay obeyed her until he didn't feel like he was on the verge of a panic. "Paigey can we take you up flying? I... I wanna see the mountains like that again before we go. Please." Mama could take his babies and Julia's resting place and his mountains from him but she couldn't take the sky. Nobody could cast him out of the sky. He wouldn't let'em.
“Yeah. Yeah of course, Jay.” Paige had never been flying before, and now was probably as good a time as any to try it for the first time. And if that was what Jay needed, she would do it without question. “Sam? You comin’ too?”
"'Course." He said easily, opening the trunk of the car and digging around in his bag before he found his aviator's goggles. "Just try an' keep up okay?"
"You okay with flying with Sammy?" he asked because he... he just couldn't fly with someone else. Not when Julia died in his arms while they flew. He didn't wait for an answer, taking off at a run to kick off and into the sky, starting to circle. He didn't want to leave this place. He shouldn't have been so selfish but he couldn't help it. Once he left these mountains all that would be left of him was anger and grief.
Why couldn't Mama have understood that?
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Paige looked at Sam. “So…how do we do this? You gotta saddle or something for me to hold on to?” Paige was really hoping he wasn’t just going to grab her and fly off.
“You don’ trust me?” Sam teased, wrapping his arms around Paige. “I won’t drop ya. Just hold on tight, okay?”
“Not after I’ve seen how clumsy you are. How am I supposed to hold on tight without handholds or something,” Paige muttered, wrapping her arms around Sam’s neck. “Ready for takeoff or whatever you call it.”
Sam laughed and held her tighter, letting the energy build at his feet until they were lifting up into the air. “I got ya. Unlax for me a bit, no use in acting like you’re about to die when I’ve got ya.”
They soared quickly over the treetops and Sam couldn’t help but grin as the wind moved through his hair. He let out a loud yell of excitement as the mountains stretched out before them. “Look at it Paigey. It’s beautiful from up here.”
Paige had closed her eyes on liftoff, but cracked one open at Sam’s words. Then opened both when she saw how small everything under them was. It was incredible up here, the mountains all spread out beneath them.
“Wow,” Paige breathed. “I can see why you love it up here. Almost jealous of you.”
Jay flew over to meet them, having to beat his wings hard to keep up with Sam. He didn't say anything, just kept close to his older siblings and committed the bare mountains to memory. Next time he saw them might not be until they were blue again. He stayed course with them a moment before starting to circle again.
He felt like he was stabbed in the heart again, but someone else held the knife.
Sam slowed down some to try to accommodate the effort it took to make Jay fly and glanced at his brother with a small sad smile.
“We go North or West once we’re at the mansion and there’s mountains again.” He said trying to offer comfort. “They’re all fucked up and green but they’re mountains.”
"Green mountains. Ain't that something." Jay tried for a smile at Sam, but it was a grimace at best. He fell back some, letting the people on the highway marvel at the rocket and the great bird above them some more before diving down to land next to the car. It'd just hurt more to drag this out. He could breathe again. The mountains were behind his eyelids if he closed them.
Best to accept he was Adam being cast from Eden.
Paige breathed a sigh of relief when Sam landed. As amazing as the view was, she didn’t think she was built for flying. Too high up and too many factors to control.
Paige gave Jay a shoulder squeeze before getting back in the car. Moving north had been a choice for her, and it was still rough in her. She couldn’t imagine what Jay was thinking.
Sam held Paige tighter and started his descent. He landed next to Jay and set Paige down. “Ready to go then? We can go flyin’ again when we get there if you want?”
"Best we get gone," Jay said as he got back in the backseat, casting one more longing glance behind him. And that was that.
Jay put both Daddy's guitar and the electric one in the backseat of the fancy car Sam'd brought down from New York. He'd already hugged the kids goodbye and told the youngest ones to be good for their big sisters. He was walking through molasses.
Nothing felt real.
"You got what you need for Columbia, Paigey?" he asked.
“Yep,” Paige said, shutting the trunk. “Anything you need before we go?” She came over and leaned into Jay’s side, trying to comfort him at least a little. With everything that had happened over the past few weeks, Paige wasn’t sure how this road trip was going to go, but hopefully the three of them would be able to balance each other out until they got to New York.
He needed Julia to be alive again. He needed his Ma. He needed his big sister. Jay leaned back against her and shook his head. What did it matter? Nothing mattered now anyways, Julia was dead and he was going to New York. "We dropping you off there?"
Paige wrapped her arm around him. “Uh. No, actually. I’m going to be just down the hall from you and Sam.” Well, it was going to come up eventually. Maybe telling Jay about her powers might distract him for a bit.
"Sam, how you'd swing that?" Jay asked as Sam brought the rest of the bags. He'd forgotten his at first. Only his guitars had seemed important. "Thought it was just for mutants?"
"What Paigey's failin' to say in plain terms is that she hid bein' a mutant from the both of us." Sam said, opening the driver's side door. "Ready to go?"
"Paige!" Jay said, and for a moment he was ribbing his sister and nothing had happened since Paige had told them about Columbia. "When were ya gonna me?" He said, as if he hadn't told his siblings about his wings- but he'd never dreamed of hiding anything from Paige. "You fly or what?"
“Uh, nope. Can’t fly. I do this.” Paige pulled off her skin and revealed a diamond form beneath. “Huh, that’s a new one.” Wanting to get on the road, she quickly shed her skin again, back to her normal form, and kicked some dirt over the pile of shreds before getting in the car.
“So, Sammy, we ready to go?” It was still awkward showing off her powers.
"Yeah." Sam said. "Just waitin' on you two knuckleheads to get in the car."
He quickly shot off a text to Clint letting the other man know that they were about to head out. He sighed, shoving his phone in the cupholder. Sam checked the rear view mirror and intentionally avoided Lucinda's gaze, instead choosing to give a small smile to his younger siblings. He didn't like the way Joelle scowled at him, but he didn't have time to fuss about it. Jay needed his attention right now.
"You know that's real cool right?" Jay asked, trying to be supportive of Paige even if his first thought had been that it was like a snake shedding its skin. But even if Paige's mutation was God punishing her somehow, he and God weren't on speaking terms right now. "I'd, uh, I'd have liked to have known sooner."
He didn't want to feel betrayed that she didn't tell him. He did anyway. (Didn't she trust him? He had always told her everything). He got into the backseat, giving one last look at Mel and the kids before tearing his eyes away.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t tryin’ to keep it from you but I was leaving for college and Ma was already upset I was leaving- there was a lot to worry about and I didn’t want there to be another thing I had to worry about…I’m just sorry.” Paige kicked herself internally for wanting so long to tell Jay and being forced to tell him now. It couldn’t have been worse timing.
They take a break from driving to see the mountains from the sky before fully leaving Appalachia.
It was about Hagerstown when the mountains started getting further and further apart and Jay felt like he was suffocating. He'd been alright through Kentucky, even through West Virginia.
He punched the center console of the car. "Fuck!"
His breathing was heavy all of a sudden. He was leaving. He was bein' sent away. This weren't going down to Tennessee for a weekend, or even out to live in Louisville. This was leaving home all together, being cast out. Leaving his mountains was going to kill his heart all over again.
"Fuck, Sammy, I can't hardly breathe, pull over."
Sam was driving in the left lane and cursed silently. "Give me a second to merge to where I can Jay, promise I'm gettin' over soon as I can."
It took maybe two minutes for other drivers to let them over, but to Sam it felt like hours. His baby brother couldn't breathe. All this, all this, and on the way to where hopefully none of it could touch them... Jay couldn't breathe.
He finally managed to pull over onto the shoulder and stop the car, whirling around to look at his brother. "What's wrong? How can I help?"
Jay was out of the car in a moment, not bothering to shut the car door behind him, wings spread wide as he collapsed to his knees and pounded the Earth. "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, she's sendin' me away from my home, where my angel is buried, my babies, my mountains," he said, not caring who saw or heard him.
He was breathing heavily, but he could breathe. When would he get to breathe his mountain air again. She was casting him out of his own bones.
Sam practically jumped out of the car to sit next to Jay. The icy rain on the ground didn't bother him, as he sat, feeling the wetness seep into his jeans. "Jay- Josh- listen to me, please? This ain't the end, you'll go back home, we'll see the mountains again..And we can sit here long as you please- but at some point, we're gonna need to keep goin' North. And when that time comes, I need you to know that we'll come back South again. Maybe not immediately, but we'll be back."
Paige leapt out after Sam, throwing herself down next to Jay.
“Shhh, Jay, it’s ok, just breathe, breathe with me. Deep, from your stomach and diaphragm.” She put a hand on Jay’s back, slowly rubbing circles. Jay needed to calm down before they tried to talk to him about anything.
Jay obeyed her until he didn't feel like he was on the verge of a panic. "Paigey can we take you up flying? I... I wanna see the mountains like that again before we go. Please." Mama could take his babies and Julia's resting place and his mountains from him but she couldn't take the sky. Nobody could cast him out of the sky. He wouldn't let'em.
“Yeah. Yeah of course, Jay.” Paige had never been flying before, and now was probably as good a time as any to try it for the first time. And if that was what Jay needed, she would do it without question. “Sam? You comin’ too?”
"'Course." He said easily, opening the trunk of the car and digging around in his bag before he found his aviator's goggles. "Just try an' keep up okay?"
"You okay with flying with Sammy?" he asked because he... he just couldn't fly with someone else. Not when Julia died in his arms while they flew. He didn't wait for an answer, taking off at a run to kick off and into the sky, starting to circle. He didn't want to leave this place. He shouldn't have been so selfish but he couldn't help it. Once he left these mountains all that would be left of him was anger and grief.
Why couldn't Mama have understood that?
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Paige looked at Sam. “So…how do we do this? You gotta saddle or something for me to hold on to?” Paige was really hoping he wasn’t just going to grab her and fly off.
“You don’ trust me?” Sam teased, wrapping his arms around Paige. “I won’t drop ya. Just hold on tight, okay?”
“Not after I’ve seen how clumsy you are. How am I supposed to hold on tight without handholds or something,” Paige muttered, wrapping her arms around Sam’s neck. “Ready for takeoff or whatever you call it.”
Sam laughed and held her tighter, letting the energy build at his feet until they were lifting up into the air. “I got ya. Unlax for me a bit, no use in acting like you’re about to die when I’ve got ya.”
They soared quickly over the treetops and Sam couldn’t help but grin as the wind moved through his hair. He let out a loud yell of excitement as the mountains stretched out before them. “Look at it Paigey. It’s beautiful from up here.”
Paige had closed her eyes on liftoff, but cracked one open at Sam’s words. Then opened both when she saw how small everything under them was. It was incredible up here, the mountains all spread out beneath them.
“Wow,” Paige breathed. “I can see why you love it up here. Almost jealous of you.”
Jay flew over to meet them, having to beat his wings hard to keep up with Sam. He didn't say anything, just kept close to his older siblings and committed the bare mountains to memory. Next time he saw them might not be until they were blue again. He stayed course with them a moment before starting to circle again.
He felt like he was stabbed in the heart again, but someone else held the knife.
Sam slowed down some to try to accommodate the effort it took to make Jay fly and glanced at his brother with a small sad smile.
“We go North or West once we’re at the mansion and there’s mountains again.” He said trying to offer comfort. “They’re all fucked up and green but they’re mountains.”
"Green mountains. Ain't that something." Jay tried for a smile at Sam, but it was a grimace at best. He fell back some, letting the people on the highway marvel at the rocket and the great bird above them some more before diving down to land next to the car. It'd just hurt more to drag this out. He could breathe again. The mountains were behind his eyelids if he closed them.
Best to accept he was Adam being cast from Eden.
Paige breathed a sigh of relief when Sam landed. As amazing as the view was, she didn’t think she was built for flying. Too high up and too many factors to control.
Paige gave Jay a shoulder squeeze before getting back in the car. Moving north had been a choice for her, and it was still rough in her. She couldn’t imagine what Jay was thinking.
Sam held Paige tighter and started his descent. He landed next to Jay and set Paige down. “Ready to go then? We can go flyin’ again when we get there if you want?”
"Best we get gone," Jay said as he got back in the backseat, casting one more longing glance behind him. And that was that.
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Date: 2024-01-01 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-01 05:01 pm (UTC)