Sam and Scott

[x-cannonball.livejournal.com]

Set some time in the last few days, after Sam gets back from the Guthrie farm from New Years. Sam comes in to Scott's office and apologizes for having his head up his ass the past few weeks, and resolves to get back to actually being a good second for Scott. Scott, after admitting that he'd gotten used to working around Sam's absence, meets him partway.



Pausing in the hallway for a moment, Sam sighed. This was not going to be much fun, any way you sliced it. But his mother had been right when she had sat down with him at the end of the time he spent at the Guthrie house after Thanksgiving. He'd been hiding out, running away from his feelings, and neglecting his responsibilities at the mansion. And it was time to fix that.

Tapping at the doorjamb of Scott's office, he walked in slowly and sat down in a chair on the other side of Scott's desk. "Ah'm sorry," he opened simply. "Ah was a damn fool, and Ah had my head up my ass. Ah neglected my responsibilities, and Ah let ya down, and Ah wanted ya to know that Ah'm sorry and Ah'm gonna do whatever needs to be done to try and make up for it."

Scott had opened his mouth to say 'come in', but Sam was already in, sitting down, and launching into his little speech before the words were more than half-formed. He paused, staring a bit wide-eyed at the younger man until he got it all out. "Okay then," he said. "What brought this on now?"

Sam paused, figuring that Scott, being Scott, would have known exactly what was going on with his running away and hiding out at home. But that wasn't necessarily realistic. After all, Professor Xavier was the telepath, not Scott. "Ah stayed at home for a fair while after Thanksgiving," he explained. "Tried to tell myself it was me lookin' after my momma and the young'uns. But really Ah was runnin' away from some things, hidin' from my feelin's and such. And Ah left ya without your second for way too long because Ah was too busy feelin' sorry for myself."

"I hadn't really--" Scott stopped himself. Telling Sam that he had long since planned around the lack of a second was not going to help... or was it? "I'd... sort of gotten used to you not being there," he said after a moment, more quietly. "Became more or less SOP."

Sam winced, even though it was entirely fair of Scott to have done that. "That's...fair," he said slowly, trying not to show the depth of how much it hurt. And it _did_ hurt, even though it was the truth. And after that statement, he wasn't quite sure of what to say, whether Scott was even interested in having him back as his second, or whether he'd started auditioning other candidates in Sam's absence.

Scott was silent for a moment, watching Sam. "I... regretted that you weren't there," he said, and then sighed, bowing to the need to be honest. "Although the fact that you weren't... the part of me that wasn't thinking clearly this fall saw that as one more reason I needed to do everything myself."

The reminder of Scott's nervous breakdown, and the fact that he had helped contribute to it by his inaction, caused Sam to bow his head for a moment. "What can Ah do to help fix things?" he asked quietly

"Well..." Scott paused, his expression going distant as he gave the question serious consideration. "I'll draw up a list of training exercises I'd like you to observe and report on. That would free up some more of my time for other things... I suspect you and I need to do some training together, too. It's been a while, and I hadn't had that in the new training rotation because you were, well, away."

"Ah'd be happy to start observing training exercises, sir," Sam replied quickly. His biggest fear in coming to Cyclops to apologize had been that the man would tell him that he had lost his spot as second and couldn't get it back. He'd watch as many training exercises as necessary.

"That should be a good start, then." Scott wasn't about to make this difficult on Sam. If he wanted back in the saddle, giving him a hand up was the only logical thing to do. It really would make things simpler to have his second back, too. "I'll give some thought to some new group exercises with you back in the second's role, too."

Nodding slowly, Sam relaxed slightly into his chair. "Ah...Ah appreciate that, sir," he said after a moment. "Ya have anythin' specific for me at the moment?" he asked. "Otherwise Ah was plannin' on goin' over some files from the past month or two in the War Room for a bit."

"Do that," Scott said firmly. "It'll take me a day or two to make the alterations I mentioned, and you ought to be caught up." He gave Sam a measuring look. "I'm not planning on making you jump through hoops or anything, Sam. Well," he paused, cracking a smile, "not any more sothan usual."

"Fair enough, sir," Sam replied with something that actually looked like a genuine grin. Standing up, he headed for the door. Turning at the doorjamb, he said "Thank you, Scott," simply and seriously.

"You're welcome, Sam," Scott said, the smile lingering even when Sam left. Well, he thought as he turned his attention back to the file on his computer. That had been a happy development.