Who: Emma Summers and John Jones What: Talking When: 4/13 Where: a sandwich shop Rating: PG Status: complete
Emma was avoiding coffee shops now, and it was hard. It wasn’t just caffeine that she missed (a lot), but the atmosphere and the readily available public place to meet people and give them caffeine. She picked a sandwich shop close to John’s place instead, but it wasn’t the same. The fact that the sandwiches were good was small consolation.
John walked in and smiled as he saw her. He waved and nodded as he approached. “Hello, Mrs Summers. How are you doing?”
His mental touch was much warmer. Hello, Emma. I hope you and yours are well.
We are, thank you. She smiled at him, pushing the seat across from her out for him with her foot. “It’s good to see you, Mr. Jones.” She motioned to the chair. “Have a seat, a waitress should be coming by soon.”
Good to hear. He settled in the seat. “Of course. Do you have any recommendations? I haven't been here before, and I am hungry.” Young Mister Summers has been quite busy lately. I hope the rest of you have been less so. He didn’t mind Nathan’s calling on him, but he hoped they all had a little peace in their lives.
She didn’t express her surprise outright, but it was clear through their link. What did Nathan call you for? “Oh, the philly cheesesteak is apparently to die for. I haven’t been here before myself. I was going to get a reuben.” She smiled at him, opening her menu.
You don’t know? The incident with Neena and Kitty... they raided a warehouse, and Nathan sussed it out from surface thoughts days ahead of time. We were able to create sufficient coverage and backup for the ladies to prevent a need for doctor Hussain’s assistance. John nodded, smiling. “I’ll have that, then. A cheesesteak sounds right up my alley, and some coffee.”
This time Emma visibly frowned. She played it off as though she was only upset about something silly. “Oh, you tease. I can’t have coffee anymore.” He did what? They did what? Her mental voice as furious. How dare they draw her son into their stupid little cockfight with a criminal organization! Those two might not have anything worth living for, but goddammit Nathan did!
John nodded. “I’m sorry, my friend. I am foolish. I will have water instead.” he smile even as inside he winced. They did not draw him in. He found out and acted on his own, to protect them. He could hear her comments even when they were not directed at him, this close. John nodded in his mind. He could see the flaws in their plan and acted ahead of time to make sure they were not harmed and the bad guys were apprehended more naturally this time.
Emma laughed lightly. “Oh, no, I’m sorry. Still going through withdrawal. You should get what you want.” She patted his hand softly. Fine. Thank you again. I owe you quite a bit, apparently.
John shook his head, smiling. “No, madame. We are friends, and friends do not tease each other, like that, anyway.” You owe me nothing. Your son is a rather amazing man. He is a little overdramatic, but also... fun.
He must get his sense of drama from his mother. Emma noted. “I’m not looking forward to more than a year without caffeine and alcohol. It’s going to be a difficult change.”
Yes, doubtless. And his father. John nodded, wincing. He patted her hand. “I am sorry. At least there are some good non-caffeinated beverages these days.” You feel tense, and did so before I told you of Nate’s extracurricular activities. What’s wrong? Concern layered his mind.
So many things. Emma sighed softly. “Yes. I’ve been living off herbal tea and stubbornness.” My father is beginning to train me to take over his company, my husband apparently slept with Neena in the future as well, Pepper’s wedding exploded, and there was an incident a couple weeks ago that’s been really bothering me for a while.
John smiled to her. “Stubbornness is a good thing, sometimes.” He sipped his water. ...you seem to have a lot on your plate. Shall we take it from the top? What is the incident that is bothering you?
Emma drew his mind deeper into her own, the external chit chat wouldn’t be interrupted by this communication. Psychic conversations went very quickly. For lack of a better venue, they were meeting in a coffee shop she created in her mind. She stood out a little with her fancy, icy dress, but she could at least have the memory of coffee here, so that was a plus.
She slid what looked like a tablet over to John. “Logan, the man you saved the other night, came to pick me up from school when my car finally died. We accidentally found a group of child pornographers. We. . . took care of the problem. Logan did the heavy lifting, and I got the children out to safety. My mind was in contact with theirs constantly.”
John talked with her while his mind followed hers and he smiled. John was a shimmering man in a brown suit, with green tinting everything. He listened and talked.
“Ahhh. You did right, but now you are filled with their thoughts, their ill deeds.” He gently clasped her hands. “You feel you cannot erase what you saw in their minds from yours.”
“I should have restrained the men and let justice be done, rather than taking it into our hands. You saw the other part of myself, I would rather not become her, and this is something I could easily see her doing. There are many layers to this problem, it’s the worst of them.”
John hmmed. “You won’t become her by doing things like this, Emma. She chose to become cold in response to her world, but you do not have to choose that.” he gently squeezed her hand. “Sometimes, justice requires sacrifices.” He himself tried not to kill, but he knew it could happen, and when necessary, he did it without flinching.
Emma nodded, breathing deeply, even in her mind. “I’m terrified something like that will happen to our child. Or to Nate. Or Corazon, one of Nate’s friends. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
John looked at her and nodded. “I can recommend several meditations that might help over time. Or the nuclear option. I could remove the relevant memories, or dull them to the point of insignificance.”His mental voice was gentle.
“I’m not sure what use they’d be, and I have a lot of other things on my plate right now.” Emma sighed, resting her head on her hand. “So much has happened, John. I know you must be feeling the same thing. I’m not the same person I was six months ago. I barely resemble her anymore.”
“Indeed. It’s rather intimidating to be another person, to be different.” He gently sent warmth and comfort toward her, the room turning a warm gtnel shade of green.
She nodded. “I imagine you’re having a harder time than me, I apologize. The changes to my own body were quite minor in comparison.” Her mental image of herself was still her natural body, not the new one she’d acquired.
His mental image was a mixture of both. “It’s been hard, but i have been lucky. My girlfriend and now fiance has been more than supportive. Which reminds me.” he handed her in real life a small envelope, and a card in the mental place.
It was an invitation to his wedding, circa May 4th. “Will you do me the honor of attending with your odd little family?”
Emma smiled. “Of course I will. I have to get some more wear out of the dress I picked for this year’s batch of weddings, anyway. Though apparently Pepper and Tony will be most of them.” She tapped the card softly on the mental table. “I wish it was easier to be married. I feel like I haven’t had a moment to breathe since Scott and I got married.”
John nodded. “Sadly, that is often the way of things in our lives.” He sighed. “Real life is often like that, too, and when you add the two together, we are without much time at all.”
She pushed her hair out of her face. Even in her mind she couldn’t free herself from small annoyances. “So, the second largest problem I have is I now want to kill Ms. Thurman and lecture Ms. Pryde for a few hours.”
John chuckled, and reached out to grip her mental hands, sending comfort and warmth. “I have often felt that it was much more fun to plot small revenges, instead. Lecturing and killing rarely helps irritation.” His smile was lopsided as he considered her.
“What’s the proper revenge for sleeping with my husband?” Emma asked, her tone sharp. This subject made her very angry. Her feelings about the children could be contained, they had context. She could deal with them in time. Her rage at what had happened in the future had no other context, and the landscape became much darker and colder.
John raised an eyebrow. “She... what did you do to your husband? How did you find out?” He didn’t care how it had happened, because to him, that didn’t matter right now. The fact was that one of his few friends was hurt, and he was going to think about that, and her, first.
“I yelled at him. Told him most women would divorce him.” She sighed. “He told me right before we left for our honeymoon. I was picking out the book I would read on the flight. I enjoyed being in Paris with him, but. . . everytime I hear her name I get so angry, and it’s unfortunate because she’s close to my son in ways I don’t really understand, but I know she’s important to him and they genuinely care for each other. All I can think about is that she’s slept with my husband since we were married, and I hate her for it. Especially since she keeps getting into as much trouble as possible.”
John facepalmed in the mindscape. “He told you right then? really? Wow...” He sighed. “It sounds like she made a really stupid mistake... but what was the context? Not defending her, just curious.” He wanted to help if he could.
“Oh, they had a perfectly plausible excuse. In the future they all forgot I exist so Scott could knock some other woman up.” Emma grumbled. “And I was fine with that, which I weird considering my seething rage at the woman he didn’t get pregnant. But I don’t have to hear about Lisa everyday.”
John blinked, then winced. “That can be a lot harder. I’m sorry, Emma. You can talk to them and ask them to not talk about Neena for awhile?” And he would talk to Nate also. This was not good.
“I don’t know. It’s just avoiding the issue, I think.” She sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”
John nodded. “Well, I think partially, you need to talk to Neena. And partially you still need to talk to Scott, because you are still angry, but you don’t want to be angry with Scott, so it all is going to Neena, and that will only end when you talk to both and resolve this, one way or another.” And John did not see this going well.
“I don’t think shanking her in the parking lot is most constructive use of my time.” Emma put her head in her hands. “I know, and it’s not even all just that. I’m probably a lot more angry about Lisa and Rachel than I’m letting myself acknowledge, but what’s another fight with Scott going to fix? I could fight with him a hundred times, he could apologize a hundred different ways, but I’ll walk away from it knowing he slept with two women after we were married, before he’d even been gone a year. I mean, five years in, sure, fine, that’s adequate. Hell, even two, since we really rushed into being married. I know they didn’t remember me, that they didn’t know he had obligations. I’m fully owning up to the ridiculousness of how I feel.” But it didn’t make her feel less like resolving things with violence.
John nodded. “Do you have any feelings on what you would like to do, realistically?” John gently squeezed one of her hands. “You need to let off this anger somehow.”
“There’s no reasonable outlet.” Emma knew in her heart that she’d just have to suck it up. “He only hooked up with me in the dreams because his first wife was basically becoming inhuman, maybe this is some kind of karmic payback for seducing a married man in another lifetime.”
“I don’t think life works that way, Emma.” He considered her and nodded. “I know it won’t solve this, or come even close, but have you considered taking up a physical hobby, something to help release stress, like boxing, or a martial art?”
“I don’t know. I barely have time. My father’s begun training me to take over his company, I’m still a teacher, soon I’ll be going to obstetrician appointments. . . I already jog and do some weightlifting everyday, I’m pretty much booked.” She preferred it that way.
"As you wish." John was still worried for her and it likely showed. “Do you spar with anyone?"
“I tried it with Logan once, but I don’t want to mention this to him. I would probably be annoyed by whatever he had to say about it.” She frowned a little. “It would be most therapeutic if I could talk and beat something up.”
John grinned. “So, fight me. You can’t hurt me, not really.” He nodded to her. He could do this for her. “That’s one thing I can help.”
“I don’t know if it will help.” Emma said, sighing. “I’m going to need something less constructive, for the moment.” She didn’t want to ask for the help she thought she needed. It was weak to put her problems off. They would only bite her in the ass in the end. But as things stood she wasn’t sure she could be with Scott in the long term. Eventually she would turn her anger on him, and it wouldn’t be pretty. “If we weren’t pregnant I would leave it be, but giving our child a loving, strong home means everything to me.”
John gazed at her and then nodded, sensing, seeing her need, and he gently touched her head in the mindspace, his mind enfolding hers for a single moment. She would find her anger dulled, distant, and her memories of the information that inspired it blurred and fading, but there, waiting and locked away.
The landscape became serene again. There would be time to deal with those issues later, for now she needed all her concentration on other things. “What have you been up to?”
“A little vigilantism, a lot of philanthropy, and some loving. Also, celibacy until the wedding.” He sighed.
“Oh my God, how are you still alive?” Emma asked, semi-seriously. “I haven’t been with Scott for a week and I’m ready to murder people. I hope your wedding is soon.”
“Go back to the part where I said vigilantism.” John grinned at her. “A lot of villains are getting their asses handed to them.” He chuckled. “We went with geeky and soon. May Fourth.”
Emma chuckled. “I’m going to be at a wedding every weekend in May at this rate.”
John grinned. “I won’t make it to this iteration of Stark’s wedding, so let me know how it goes.”
“Sure. Just watch out. Weddings are apparently cursed. I think we can talk about all this in the real world now, if you want. Our food’s almost done.”
“As you wish. ” And he slid out of her mind, continuing what he had been saying in real life. “-and that was why she wanted to move in to my place, when we get married. It made sense, so i agreed.” he nodded and sipped his water.
“It’s good that things worked out that way.” Emma noted, leaning back as their food was brought out. “Scott and I are thinking about remodeling his house. It’s perfect for now, but we want a slightly larger family than the house will currently accommodate.”
“Makes sense. And there are several contractors on the valarnet.” He thumbed his chin as food came. “Here we go.” He was glad he had been able to help Emma, and he was glad he could be there for her. She was a good friend.