WHO:Emma Frost & Logan WHEN: this week WHERE: Emma & Jean's, then Victrola WHAT: Emma's dreams bleed over; again WARNINGS: mild cussing STATUS: Complete
Realistically, Emma shouldn’t have been surprised at the return of Mister Sinister, was there a hole that genetic altering lunatic wouldn’t crawl out of? For the most part, the Celestial’s hadn’t been of any problem, just standing, watching, waiting. And while that was not ideal, it was better than the alternative. Of course Sinister would awaken them, and of course it would cause problems. When didn’t Sinister cause problems?
Emma was fairly on edge as she cleaned around the kitchen, not because it needed doing, no. Her kitchen was spotless, her home was spotless, even with the floppy mop of a dog Jean brought with her, things were always clean. She was tidying an already tidy kitchen purely for something to do.
Something felt off, and the dream had made her feel off centre. She knew that sticking was Scott was partly expected of her, that it was expected she would do what she could to help him, she liquidated her company for him. And it felt wrong. It wasn’t just that, not right then. She knew that her diamond form was not indestructible, there was a flaw and she could be shattered, but for the most part not even Colossus could break her diamond body.
And yet the Celestial had damaged her.
The last time a dream had affected her in the real world she’d woken up shattered, and she could feel something abnormal (or more abnormal than developing powers at all) settling in her gut while she tried to distract herself. It started as a sharp pain in her arm, just above her elbow, where the severing of her arm had occurred, and rather than risk it, Emma sent a quick telepathic message to Jean to inform her she was transforming and not to worry before she let herself go entirely diamond.
Apparently that was the point, maybe. As soon as her hair was fully diamond, her left arm gave a sharp crack before disconnecting from her body. “Fuck.” She was quick to grab the severed arm before it hit the floor, just in case, and then slipping down to lean against the counter and sitting on the floor herself. Probably not dignified, and she couldn’t exactly freak out while in her diamond form, the beauty of being an emotionless precious stone. But still.
She needed to fix this, and quickly. Jean had pieced her back together before, but Emma was aware of just how much power that called for, and most of it was Phoenix’s power, and she was loathe to ask anything of that cosmic parasite. She did the next best thing, grabbing her cell phone and dialing Logan’s number. Rather than wait for pleasantries, she launched right in when the Canadian answered, “I need you to come and get me.”
Luckily for Emma, Logan wasn’t indisposed. Unless watching a hockey rerun could be considered indisposed. He picked up the phone, listened, then looked at the screen and gave it an annoyed look before answering. “Either this is what Kitty would call a booty call or somethin’s wrong. What do you need?”
“Yes Logan, I never seduced you while I was with Scott, but now that I’m with Jean, I’ve been hit with the need to do so.” He could probably tell she was rolling her eyes, “I need you to come over to my house, collect me and my body parts and then I’ll work out the rest of my plan. It’s slow in the making, I’m trying to freak out but I can’t.”
She was sure hyperventilation was needed, but when she didn’t need to breath, well, hyperventilating would just be overly dramatic really. “You can take me to my new property. There’s a bar there, call that payment.”
“I’ve been told the best solution to a triangle is a pile,” Logan said as he got to his feet. Body parts? The fuck had Emma gotten herself into? “I’ll be right there, payment sounds fair enough, not that you need to.”
He hung up and headed out to his truck. Worse case scenario Emma needed to bury something so he’d need the truck.
It took him ten minutes to get to Emma and Jean’s, and he let himself in rather than knock. “So what’s the freak out?”
While she appreciated Logan’s swiftness, the few minutes delay at least gave her time to haul herself from the floor so she wouldn’t be sprawled like some unfortunate. This was not the end of the world, and Emma’s cool and calm exterior would prevail where the squishy interior of herself was panicking at the notion of losing her arm -surely there was a method to reattach. Why had she not dreamt to the reattachment yet? Because that would be simple, wouldn’t it.
“Kitchen, Logan.” Not having the answer the door was a gift right then. She was standing by the sink, her detached left arm laid out in all its glittering diamond glory by her side. “Do you happen to know any good reattachment surgeons who can work with diamond?”
He shook his head at her. This could be worse, she could be in pieces. “Unless McCoy starts dreamin’, I don’t know of one.” Logan came closer, then carefully picked up her arm and inspected it. “You’re gonna be stuck this way until we figure this out. We could call Jeanie.”
He didn’t know that that wasn’t an option, at least not at the moment. He’d probably get it when Emma explained.
Henry, of course, she’d seen that and… promptly avoided it. The first few years of their involvement were not grand. She’d approach that one slowly as it developed. “I can revert, I’m sure, but more than likely I’ll bleed out from the damage done.” Namor had stemmed the bleeding in the dream for awhile, long enough that Emma had managed to sever the connection between Sinister and Scott, then returning diamond to stop shock setting in.
“Jean… Is not an option.” The tone was colder than she’d usually deliver it, but her emotions were fairly sealed off. “If she was to reattach this, she’d need Phoenix, I’m not asking her to resume use of that thing.” Emma didn’t want Phoenix getting a further grip on Jean here. “I’ll find something else, I hope, I just need to be somewhere else in case Jean comes home.”
That was a good point. Logan frowned, then nodded. The less Jeanie used the Phoenix the better. They couldn’t put it off forever, but this was one thing that procrastination sounded good on. “All right. My place or do you got somewhere in mind? I’m sure my place would make you feel like you got tetanus.”
“Victrola. I can stay there for a while, I’ll tell Jean I’m going over the books, it’ll give me the day maybe.” And hopefully she could find one of those folks on the network that could offer some kind of help without Jean finding out before Emma was ready to tell her. Keeping secrets wasn’t part of their deal with this relationship, but Emma could tell her in time.
“I’m literally impervious right now, Logan. Tetanus is the least of my worries.” Grabbing her arm, and then staring at her phone because… “Will you please grab my phone.” This was going to get old fast.
“I might have to stick around a little while.” Logan took Emma’s phone for her. “At least she can’t read your mind in this state, an’ as long as she don’t know I helped she won’t go pokin’ around in mine.” Not that she would on purpose, but it would be easy enough for her to realize he was hiding something and that would lead to questions.
It wasn’t like Emma wouldn’t tell Jean, she just wanted to make sure Jean didn’t feel the need to use the Phoenix power just because Emma’s arm had fallen off. She’d exhaust all her options before turning to that. “I’ll tell her later, she won’t need to poke.” Heading out to the truck, not even bothered about the fact that she had a spectacularly wonderful car sitting there, Emma was a little glad that things like diamond women didn’t really get the same reaction around here as it would anywhere else.
“The bar doesn’t open for another few hours, but we’ll make sure you’re watered.” If Logan was willing to keep her company until she found someone to do this or sucked it up and talked to Jean. “The least I can do for playing babysitter.” There was something to be said for when you could call someone and ten minutes later they turned up.
“Good.” Keeping secrets was never a good thing, though Logan would be a little hypocritical where that was concerned. “Promise I won’t drink you outta business.”
He grinned at her, then got the door for her. He was glad he hadn’t brought the motorcycle. Emma could probably fit but it would be awkward with a loose arm.
Holding on to Logan and her arm and her phone would be complicated. Sometimes she wished her diamond form could leave her some pockets at least, but with all of her clothes on her body transforming with her, that meant no, she had no pockets. Still, the truck at least meant she could lay her arm over her lap and use her phone to attempt to start the search for someone that could help her on the network.
“If I weren’t an organic compound that was unable to drink, I would probably be giving you a run for your money.” She’d spent far too long in diamond form lately. And yes, a majority of it was just in her dreams, but she felt like she’d been doing it herself. After Void she’d hoped she could limit her transformations, since it already strained a lot of her relationships. Empathy was important for her, she used it so rarely she couldn’t exactly allow it to be constantly off. “I suppose the plus side is that I don’t need to do any human things right now.” She was basically cut off from all of that -which was good right now, in this one instance, because she’d rather not navigate the basic human needs with one arm.
“You couldn’t drink me under the table if you tried,” Logan said. “...but I’d like to see you try.” He wouldn’t even make fun of her. They had an odd relationship, at times antagonistic, but he’d never really hated her, even over the whole Scott/Jean thing. “You’ll get fixed, one way or another. Losin’ an arm sucks. I don’t recommend it.”
But at least for Logan, it could grow back. Emma was a bit more troublesome where that was concerned.
Strangely, at times, Emma often thought she could rely more on Logan than she could on Scott. If there was one thing that Logan understood that Scott never had it was turning your life around, making it worth something, shaking off those sins of the past. Scott had always been the golden child of Charles Xavier’s, his prodigy in the making, even if there were several alternative paths that could’ve been taken. And Emma? Well, she knew her tarnished past.
Logan had never held that over her, not the way some of the X-Men had. It made her appreciate his friendship all the more, the fact that he knew her, even those dark spots of her personality, and accepted them as her, not in spite of them, like she felt Scott sometimes had. “One day you and I will settle down and drink, and we’ll see. Healing factor or not.” He did have that going for him, and right now, Emma was envious of that -how lovely would it be to just grow back her arm?
Darkness was a friend of Logan’s, death too. He had a kinship with those who weren’t entirely good, even if at times he too could be a self-righteous ass that made Scott Summers seem reasonable. “Fair enough. As long as it ain’t some cheap crap.”
He doubted Emma would serve the cheap stuff anyway. She was a woman who knew how to savor the good things. Whether it was a drink, or Jeannie. “Do tell me how Jean reacts to this.”
Cheap alcohol would not make it’s way into any establishment Emma came to own. If people wanted cheap booze the could go to a strip bar. That was not what her establishment was for. “Jean’s reaction to what? My detached arm or our drinking contest? Because I can assure you, you’ll see her reaction to our drinking contest, she’ll be the one carrying me home.”
“Both,” Logan replied, though he nodded at her arm. The drinking contest was something to look forward to. Maybe Jean would accuse him of corrupting Emma, which would be a hoot and a half. “But this right now. She’ll chew you out somethin’ fierce for not tellin’ her sooner. This the place?”
He pulled off into a parking lot, then drove around to find the back entrance so they didn’t have to answer any odd questions about the one-armed woman.
Oh, Emma knew that she’d get a chewing out, she’d have an angry red head on her hands, telling her off for secrets and hiding things, asking about trust. And Emma? She’d need to be honest and forth right and lay it all out. Finally.
“Yes, I do believe she will. Most likely we’re argue back and forth about handling things by ourselves, I may be accused of hiding things or not trusting and more than likely I will need to divulge my crippling fear that I’m going to lose her to that force just like Scott did.”
Which was the crux of it all, wasn’t it. Emma was well aware that she was in love with Jean bloody Grey, and she was not prepared to lose her under any circumstances. Even if it was to save herself. “This is it, yes.” Victrola looked modest from the outside, nicely laid out and wonderfully up kept, because it was in a lovely area and Emma was now paying very well to keep it that way. “There’s an office upstairs, hopefully someone gets back to me with answers on this and you can drink your fill in compensation.”
Logan nodded, wishing he already had a drink in his hands. Anything involving the Phoenix was worth drinking over. Again and again that damn thing rose from the ashes to burn at the people that mattered to him. It wasn’t something to be trusted. No one could control it, no matter what Jean or Rachel might try to tell him. He wouldn’t believe it, couldn’t. Would Jean die by his claws here, too?