Re: On the Way Home
"Oh, trust me. We've been doing nothing but making them sorry. Three facilities shut down, two more they had to abandon, plus more personnel than you can shake a stick at," he murmured fiercely. And that included five targets terminated today. Not to mention the bloody trail of bodies Wolverine and Warpath had been leaving in their wake that he wasn't even supposed to know about. He took Ororo's hand and pulling it up to his mouth, more a press of the lips than a real kiss on her fingers. "It's gotta be putting the hurt on them. Even the government doesn't have that kind of money, not when it's a deep black op that's not supposed to exist."
"But the important thing is that you're safe, and in one piece. Curling up, I can definitely do that," he added in something more of a soothing whisper. He let out a sigh, resting his chin on Ororo's knee.
A little voice inside his head told him that Jamie was right there, but he just blinked at it like it was speaking in tongues. So what if Jamie was there? It wasn't like they were dating, right? Pete Wisdom didn't date anyone, after all. He had his drunken-morning-after nightmares, then he had his one-night-stands, and he had his special friends. Both Jamie and Ororo fell squarely into that latter category, so far as he was concerned. Not that he'd bothered to actually ask either of them if that was so. It was understood. Right? At least he knew Storm understood it. It had never been an issue with her, and he knew for a fact they both played the field at leisure. He had never bothered to sound Jamie out.
They had already become good friends, and when Ororo disappeared and Pete almost fell apart, Jamie became something else. The dreaded friend with benefits scenario. He didn't take into consideration that he'd spent almost all his time with Madrox lately. He was just easy to be with. They were working almost non-stop on Excalibur stuff, trying to find captive mutants all over the continent pretty much all day every day. Jamie was there all the time. Was Pete taking him for granted? Quite possibly. Had he even for a moment stopped to think about any of this? Not a chance. He was blessedly clueless. Then it had been work and all the madness of their daily lives, and now he had Ororo to be guilty at for getting her caught, and to take care of if she'd (hopefully) allow it. Yeah, it wasn't looking like Pete was going to think about any of this any time soon, not unless either Ororo or Jamie gave him a sound and energetic introduction to the old clue bat, as in hitting him over the head with it. Repeatedly.
Clueless, that was Pete. For a man who made his living gathering intelligence, he could be pretty short-sighted about stuff close to home.