Alex Summers (second_summers) wrote in marvel_united, @ 2013-03-03 14:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | havok, polaris |
Who: Lorna and Alex
What: Serious talk
When: March 3rd, 2013
Where: HQ, San Fransisco
Lorna was having a lazy day. She was incredibly thankful for this thing called the internet and electronic bill pay. They were lifesavers for running errands without actually running errands. But she was currently laying in bed, because she was tired, with the blanket all around her with her laptop balancing on her stomach. “Paid cell phones.” She announced to Alex who was doing something else at his desk in the room. “And now I’m going to make out a shopping list. Yay.” She deadpanned.
~~~~~~
Alex looked up from the training schedule he was trying to revise and grinned over at Lorna. Oh yes, the exciting and fabulous life of people on an X-men team. “Can you put toothpaste on? Oh the non gel kind?” Because Alex was picky about his toothpaste, yes. “And hey, at least if you decide to do the shopping list run you don’t need to wear a wig.”
He sort of wished she would, just to be safe, but he knew better than to push it. He did that she shouldn’t have to hide who she was - he just wanted her to be safe.
~~~~~~
“Non-gelly toothpaste coming right up.” She said putting it first thing on her list. Wedded bliss. This is what it consisted of apparently.
“Damn straight.” Really being indoors like that had been the most infuriating thing she’d ever been through.
She added a few more things on their personal shopping list. They do a massive supply run for the entire HQ later. “Is that it for you?” She asked as she wrote down shampoo, body wash, and tampons. That was when she paused for a second stopping what she was doing. Wait. She had a box right? She saw it, but really she shouldn’t have a box. That was when she finally started to crawl out of bed.
~~~~~
“That’s it for me.” Alex answered a bit distracted like as he had turned back to coming up with a schedule, and things for the team to do. He sort of registered that Lorna was crawling out of bed, but he figured that she was getting ready to go to the store. “Do you want some company?” He asked that a bit distractedly, as he was still more focused on his computer then on what his wife was doing.
~~~~~
Did she want company? Honestly she’d been getting up to start pacing. She could go to the store, come back, and not worry him until she knew for sure, but they were married. They were supposed to share all of this stuff. “I’m pregnant. Well- no no no no no no no.” She backtracked instantly shaking her head quickly. “I’m not. You need to drive, because I’m late.”
~~~~~
She said two words; I’m pregnant. And Alex was on his feet, knocking over his computer in his haste to get up from his desk and get over to where she was. He heard her saying no, and saw her shaking her head, but he was grabbing her into a hug. Because - this wasn’t part of the plan, but did they have a plan? But it was a situation that required a hug.
“I’ll drive. We’ll go. To the drug store.” He was terrified and excited and hopeful and just -everything at once. “And then we’ll - we’ll go from there.” He was not going to allow himself to go into a full on Alex Summers spiral until they knew. Then they’d …. go from there. Come up with a plan.
Grabbing her hand he started towards the door.
~~~~~
“Yeah.” She agreed nodding her head, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she was agreeing to. She didn’t even change out of her plaid pajama bottoms and tank top. She just slipped on shoes and hoodie and was out the door.
And it wasn’t long after that she was back. But she’d actually calmed down a bit on the ride there and back. Because they’d be fine. They could deal with this. Wasn’t exactly the plan, but sometimes things didn’t work out like you expected. But she was still feel residual stress from everything that had happened the last several months that her most visceral reaction had been. No, not now.
She popped the bathroom door open. “What time is it? It says it takes three minutes.” She was sitting on the rim of the bathtub, and ran her hand messily through her hair.
~~~~~
“It’s twelve oh five.” Alex answered after checking the time on his phone, he moved over to the open bathroom door and leaned in the doorway looking in at Lorna. He had worked very hard on the drive home, and the drive to the drugstore not to start making plans, or picking out names or doing anything of that nature.
It had been hard. He was a Summers after all.
“So.” He had promised himself that he would not start planning. He was not planning. He was just saying so. And not following that up with questions about baby names. Because they didn’t know yet that she was indeed pregnant.
~~~~~
This was going to be an excruciating three minutes, but she scooted over a little bit just in case he wanted to share her tub. “Yeah.” She replied, letting her elbows lean on her knees and propping her head up in her hands. There was a ton that she did want to say to him, but she thought it might be better to know for sure first. Besides she was kind of reeling with a billion types of emotions anyway.
Alex, however, looked extremely calm. It was a little unlike him, but thankfully they’d been good at taking turns freaking out. Her foot tapped rapidly on the floor as she waited.
~~~~~
Alex moved into the bathroom and took a seat next to her on the tub, and then pulled his phone out, and started watching the screen. Just waiting for the numbers to change over from a five to a six. Then it would be six to seven, then seven to eight … and there’d be an answer. If it was a yes. That was when he’d have some sort of freak out. And if it was no …well then there would be no reason to freak out.
He reached out a hand, to take one of Lorna’s, and give it a squeeze.
~~~~~
Moment of truth. She took a giant breath and then let go of Alex’s hand to reach for the test on the counter. Nothing. She let out a sudden breath. “Nothing.” She picked up the box again and scanned the back just to double check that she was reading it right. She looked up at him. “Not pregnant.” She figured she’d feel relieved, but now she wasn’t sure how she was feeling. There was a lot. “We need to talk.”
~~~~~
Nothing. Alex sat there, not sure how he felt to be honest. He just felt - lots of things. Relieved, sad, and now he was thinking of how they could deal with any thing like this in the future and -
He looked over at Lorna.
“I guess we do. You want to talk in here, or the bedroom?”
~~~~~
She looked around the bathroom, and almost laughed at his question. “Bedroom. Definitely not bathroom conversation.” Seriously nothing was bathroom conversation. As she crossed the threshold from the bathroom to the bed room she toed off her sneakers, pulled her hoodie off and flopped back down onto the bed.
She took a couple of deep breaths. “I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but it’s always been down the line. What if I had been?”
~~~~~
Alex followed her into the bedroom, kicking off his own sneakers. Then he went and took a seat on the edge of the bed, letting out a deep breath as he glanced over at Lorna. That was - that was a very good question. “Well. We would have got a head start on the family.” Because kids, kids were a thing that they both wanted. So there was that. “And we would have made it work.” Because that’s what they did - although Alex had always thought that they would be retired from the whole X-men life before they had kids …
He didn’t know if he wanted to have kids when they both were out there, dealing with X-team level threats, and making themselves rather public targets for all the anti mutant groups out there.
“How - I don’t know. But we would have.”
Easy to say that now mind you, that they knew she wasn’t pregnant.
~~~~~
She wasn’t too fond of the idea of doing this while still doing this X-person thing. It was dangerous, and really she’d never planned to do this long term either, but the fact of the matter was that with the recent MRA debacle, she wasn’t exactly sure how she couldn’t keep doing this for a little while longer. It was making the world a safer place, which would be better in the long run, right?
We would have made it work wasn’t exactly what she’d expected to hear, but it was the truth. “I always pictured us not doing this, when we did.” She admitted. “It’s dangerous.” Sure Scott and Jean did it, but the school was different. It was also a real home in its way. “But what we do here is important.”
~~~~~
“I know.” Because he did know, what they did was dangerous, and while Alex knew that lots of things in the world were dangerous, what they did was go out and court danger. They were in Alex’s opinion, almost asking the universe to make any of their potential children orphans. “I - I don’t know what we would have had to do, if you were.” Because he didn’t feel they could give up the fight now, but he also didn’t know how he could have parented and kept doing what they did.
“So. We need a more … firm plan I guess.” Although he figured that they were also mutants, and he was a Summers by birth,and she had married into the family. THe universe seemed to delight in upsetting the plans of both mutants and Summers. “But ideally, not doing this, when we have kids would be part of that plan.” Okay so they could agree on that right?
~~~~~
“I agree.” She said but then sat up. “The problem is we’ve just been slapped in the face with the possibility that sometimes life just happens. Ideally, we’d wait, but I think we need a backup plan.” Because what they did was different from the school. The school was homey, and not just a base of operations, not to mention the plethora of built in babysitters.
She thought for a moment. “But we’ve always said doing this isn’t permanent, but the MRA happened and life happens, and there’s always a reason to not quit doing this. So how do we step away if there’s still work to do?”
~~~~~
Now Alex liked plans, and he loved backup plans. Because it wasn’t enough t have a plan, it was always good to have the secondary plan in case that first one didn’t go right. He felt a bit disappointed in himself that he had never thought about a backup plan for their children plan. Although the children plan was a little … vague on things like the number of kids they’d eventually have.
“Honestly, Lorna I don’t know.” Because he wasn’t comfortable with the thought of stepping away while there was work to do -he didn’t think that he could do that. “And I don’t know if we can say, in so many years we live. No matter what, because - I don’t know.” He reached up and ran a hand through his hair.
“What if we …” There was no semi retiring because then you might as well still be out in the field. “If things don’t settle we could ...look at stepping back. Going to the school.”
~~~~~
Dang that was a lot of ‘I don’t know’s coming from him. “We could.” She agreed. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “I love you, and I don’t want to wait forever. I don’t want to be racing some clock later.”
She sighed. “I’d like more than one, and not right up on top of each other either.” One thing she did know was that she felt confident that they would have worked this out wonderfully if they had to have.
~~~~~
Alex gave her hand a squeeze, they didn’t have to deal with this right now but it would be good to have a plan. And maybe start moving towards that plan sooner rather than later . . . “No clock racing.” He agreed. “And I’m just saying cousins for Rachel might be nice. And ...” He took a moment to get things straight in his head. “I was thinking that we could also adopt.” Okay he was getting ahead of himself here, they needed to be talking about how they’d deal with kids and the X-team thing.
“We could mention to Scott …” Oh how he hated sometimes that his brother was the head of the X-teams. “That we need to start thinking about someone else coming into run this team at some point. Maybe see who they’ve got moving up the ranks who might be interested in that.”
That wouldn’t happen tomorow or the day after, but maybe he and Lorna could work towards taking a step back. Someday.
~~~~~
That actually wasn’t a surprise in the least. She and Alex had both been adopted children. Granted, Lorna had stayed in the family, but still, there were too many kids out there, especially mutant children that were sometimes tossed to the street by parents that were supposed to love them. She nodded and smiled. “We can do that.” She’d remain positive about it. The MRA was overturned right now, but she sometimes thought about the list and didn’t feel too optimistic about life and mutant rights.
“Let’s do that. I mean, we don’t have a set timetable or anything, but better than leaving them in a lurch whenever.”
~~~~~
“Okay, so we have … the start of a plan.” He was starting to feel a bit better about things. “We can maybe … I mean this is way, off there. Look for a place, here, or in Hawaii. A cottage maybe.” For when they wanted to be away from the X-life, and just be with their family.
“With lots of room.” He gave a grin; “I’m thinking what - five kids?”
~~~~~
She raised an eyebrow at him, because she was really wondering what his plan was to support five kids. That seemed like the most important thing to concentrate on at the minute. “Go back to school.” Ah the broke lives of academia, but couples did it all the time. She’d been an only child, but it wasn’t like she’s been all wistful for siblings growing up. “It’s one thing to say that, but like if we’re not doing this, I have no idea, how we’d even support a family of that size without finishing up. I’m just saying.
And sure as heck wasn’t giving birth to five kids, she smiled at him. “And I’m so not giving birth to that many.” She said with a certain amount of good nature. She was just getting that out there. Being pregnant that much seemed like it would annoying.
~~~~~
“We can take turns going back to school, or both go back part time...Or we could just start buying lottery tickets. Maybe we should actually start doing that.” He knew the odds, but what was the harm in maybe starting with some lottery ticket buying?
The part time had been part of the plan, but it was just like things kept happening. The MRA, sentinels, having to move their headquarters and go under ground …. yeah things kept happening. But maybe they need to try and start making things happen for them, because if they just kept waiting …
“Five total.” Alex assured her with a grin. “Total.”
~~~~~
She started chuckling. “Lottery tickets, get a telekinetic in the room with the lotto balls?” She shook her head. She knew it was a joke, but a little bit of that sounded a bit helpless. She was just going to chalk that up to being emotional at the moment.
She leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips. “You’re insane.” She said with a smile. “Five max.”
~~~~~
“I like that idea.” He told her seriously, or well mock seriously about the lotto balls. “Or else we try and find some sort of game of chance that has metal in it. Lots of metal, and you go in and use your powers to help sway things our way.” Yes, this conversation was all fine and good and fun to have here in the privacy in their rooms, and they were joking. But he did know that what they joked about here, was sometimes talked about by others who talked about how they feared mutants would use their powers in those ways.
He laughed then; “I’m a Summers, I think that’s part of the territory. So five total. Got it.”
~~~~~
“Go to vegas.... Roulette tables are metal right?” She joked flopping back down on the bed, and scootching so her head was on the pillow. Pretty much the same position she was in before this entire thing had started. “Come lay down with me. I’m now exhausted and feel like being lazy for the rest of the day.” She still had so much to talk about.
~~~~~
Alex moved over and laid down next to her, being quiet for a few minutes. Yes - it was the middle of the day and they were having a lay down, but he felt kind of exhausted. That whole trip to the drug store, and then the wait had been exhausting. Like going toe to toe with some of the villains that the X-teams had to deal with exhausting.
“I think this should be declared a lazy day. And then we can - be lazy. Maybe make some more solid plans. We’ve got - putting word out to Scott and Jean for someday having someone else take over here.”
~~~~~
She rolled over and propped her head up on her hand and smiled a bit at him. “I can do lazy day.” She replied with a bit of a shrug before snuggling close. Hey, she just wanted some lazy snuggling time to have with her husband. She nodded to what he said, but she was quiet for a long moment herself.
“This is going to sound stupidly cliche. I know it wouldn’t be a good time, but a little disappointed.” Don’t get her wrong, she thought it wouldn’t have been a good time, but yes, she was a bit disappointed.
~~~~~
“Not stupid, I think I’m a little disappointed too.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. Now was very much not a good time, but - yes. A touch disappointed. “I mean, she or he would have had a cousin their age, and we’ve got Jubilee who I’d trust to be a babysitter.” Maybe. And then they had Nemesis who he would not.
~~~~~
She figured that if Jean had anything to say about it Rachel wouldn’t be Scott and Jean’s only child, but yes cousin their age... She let go of her head and rested it against his shoulder. “They’d be an xbox addict, but it could be worse.” She sighed. “I think I’m going to take a nap.”
~~~~~
“Could be a lot worse.” If their kid, or rather kids (and he meant both the ones that came from a mixing of their genes and the ones that they adopted and brought into this madness that was their lives) only had Xbox as their vice, and that was the biggest thing they had to worry about in regards to them? Yeah, that would be nice. And things could be so, so much worse.
“All right.” He gave a smile, perfectly all right with Lorna using his shoulder as a pillow. “I think naps are a good use of time on a lazy day.”