WHO: Hope Van Dyne, Jan Van Dyne, with a little Scott Lang WHEN: Today. After this. WHERE: Hope's housing WHAT: Mother & Daughter reunited WARNINGS: Some vague mention of the abuse Jan suffered at Hank's hand, but not anything more than a phrase.
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Katie Summers had been lost in the time stream, stolen away from her parents — Jan and Alex Summers — on the promise that Kang could restore them to a certain time to save the Earth and the billions of people upon it. Of course it had been the right thing to do at the time. When Kang's nefarious plan to keep Katie was revealed, Jan couldn't honestly say that she was surprised. Kang had always wanted to destroy the Avengers, and that was always the one thing that he could never do.
So of course, turning the tides on the Wasp was always in the cards.
Jan felt as if she should have known, and some part of her was sure that she had. But it was billions of lives versus the one, and there had never been any question. Later, of course, she'd withdraw from those around her, a trait she'd never been overfond of or prone to. Jan often engorged on human activity when she was down and out, something that always cheered her spirits, but there was nothing that could bring Katie back. All Jan could think was how Katie was being tortured. What was Kang doing to her? Telling her about her parents? It was torturous.
And then everyone had been inverted for a short amount of time, in which they'd all made a huge mess of things. Tony had been exempt from the canceling spell, and because his cloaking was large enough to cover anyone behind him, Sabretooth and Alex had gotten caught up in it, remaining inverted. One X-Men swapped into one of Apocalypse's minions. He'd used Jan to escape, forcing her to shrink them both down to leave the area.
Those new memories were worse. She hadn't told anyone about them. Alex, a bad guy. He'd been the best of the Unity Squad, and if that spell inverted everything, then he was the worst of their enemies.
Once upon a time, Jan had daydreamed of having children with Hank. Those had been the days before his mental breakdown and ages before the dissolution of their marriage. She'd wanted a girl with her looks and charm and Hank's smarts. Even if she was only half as smart as him, she'd be smarter than almost anyone in the world. That was a world and some years away. Jan had to see her.
What was she like? Did Scott think she'd be proud of her? How old was she? Was she married to dad yet? There were a lot more questions rattling around in Hope's head as she paced in the bedroom. The room that she somehow shared with Scott Lang. What should have been awkward was now kind of comfort. It didn't feel strange to have him here because he lived here.
"Do you think that —" The knock on the door wasn't unexpected, but they always came with a small start. "Never mind. Showtime, huh?"
“Showtime,” Scott agreed, grateful for the interruption of that pacing. Hope had a composure about things that had convinced him that most anything would bounce off that cool exterior. Whenever she started fretting, though, he knew it had to be above her coping levels. And, sure, she hadn’t asked him to be here, but he expected that. It didn’t mean she didn’t want someone around. Even him. “It’ll be fine,” he added -- again, not that she asked. It was given without request.
"Thank you," was said sincerely before Hope hurried out of the bedroom and into the living room, closing the door behind her with a click. There were some things, like the Wasp costume, that she wasn't willing to give away just yet. She turned, smoothing down her hair as best as it would go without all the products and styling tools she had back home. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.
And this was either a great idea, or about to backfire spectacularly. Scott had been banking on that paternal instinct. If your kid -- if anyone who could claim to be your kid -- turned up, you’d want to meet them. It seemed like the only conclusion to make, but he knew that the Van Dyne-Pym family had been put through the ringer more than once. The knock made him look up from his perch on his bed, watching Hope’s reaction before she slipped out. He wasn’t crossing his fingers exactly, but maybe he was holding his breath a small bit.
Right, the door needed answering.
The two women stared at one another. Everything about Jan felt shorter — from her legs to her age to her hair — smaller somehow. The beat of her heart in her throat kept her from speaking, afraid that she'd just croak a greeting, and was that any way to greet the daughter you thought you'd never have with the first love of your life? No, no way. Jan wasn't sure that just standing here was any better.
Eventually, they both broke the silence at the same time in the same way, a confused hi and an embarrassed smile, and that was all it took for the pair of them to lose their cool. Jan was the first to tear up, blinking against the rapidly growing emotions for a woman she'd never met.
"You look so young," Hope never minced words, but there were some cases she thought better about it. She remembered her mom like this. This woman wasn't her mother, of course, but there was a sense of familiarity that Hope couldn't shake.
"You look so beautiful!" The words tumbled out in a mumble as Jan felt her tears spilling over.
Neither woman said anything more, but stepped in an almost mirrored way as they moved in to embrace one another in the doorway. Hope never imagined that she'd get to see her mother again, not any version of her. This was such an unexpected… treat wasn't the right word. Neither was delight or pleasure. It was something else, something more, and of course, it was tinged with the bittersweet knowledge that to have this reunion, they had to be parted at all. Hope was all too aware of how fleeting these moments could be.
It sounded like neither of them needed any push, which meant no need to hang around and ruin another family milestone. Smartly, Scott reached over to the helmet sitting atop his pillow. He looked over around the divider one more time at Hope’s Wasp suit before smiling to himself as he thumped the metal shell down over his head and jammed the button on his glove. The world grew as fast as he shrunk down -- they probably didn’t even notice him slip by and out the bedroom door, then out the housing unit’s door for a little stroll.
When she finally pulled away, her own eyes weren't dry. "Do you want to come in? We could talk about anything. Anything at all, I don't care."
Jan's smile was as genuine as they came. "I'd love that."