Explanation: My boyfriend had writers' block when it came to "Day At The Doctor", but has wonderful ideas for "Second Hitler"(his O:ZT adaptation) which comes afterwards in the series. Since I could A) listen as he obsessed over this story and end up killing him or B) write the story for him, I chose B. Murder trials are expensive and wonderful boyfriends are hard to find.
In exchange, he's writing Life's Little Emergencies for me, otherwise known as "Rahne's First Period".<vbeg> Not only that, but in his own words: "if you write this story, you can use Tony and Celeste in it as much as you want". Now how could I turn down an offer like that? ;-)
Part One
The Massachusetts Academy...
"Aieeeyyyyeeeeee!" Rahne looked up as she heard the sound come from a body as it flew though a closed window. She watched as it sailed straight down into a cluster of rosebushes and grimaced. That looked very painful.
Running over to the body, she smiled as she recognized it as Matt Brown, the evidently ex-boyfriend of Celeste Dubois, the school's unofficial mother figure. _Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person._ "The next time ye try tae fly, grow some wings first," she advised as the man started to struggle his way out of the bushes.
Tony Longhair looked grimly at the man as he stood up. "Celeste asked me to tell you that the next time she saw you, you'd be in worse condition." Matt nodded and started to run to his car. Turning around, the Native American saw Rahne and tried to briefly explain. "She walked in on him giving her sister a bottle of vodka and lost it."
Rahne smiled as much as the situation would allow. "It's about time things got back to normal." They watched as the car sped down the hill and quickly out of the mansion grounds. "With him gone, A hope they start tae mend."
Tony shook his head and sighed. Celeste was finding out what he had known for a while and the news would shatter her. Ariel was an alcoholic and needed help desperately. "He may be gone but he won't be forgotten for a long time."
Rahne nodded and turned to walk inside. In the past couple of days, she and Celeste had bonded in a way that was hard to explain. All Rahne really knew was that in another time, they would have been soul sisters, a thread that would be treasured in the fabric of her life. Now, given the fact that they wouldn't have enough time to fully develop that relationship because of the distance their obligations put between them, they settled for giving each other total support as was fitting for two sisters in the Lord, which was good. Still, Rahne regretted never having the chance to become what they could have been. "A'll see what A can do."
***
Emma watched the flying man crash into the rose bushes and grinned. Evidently, Celeste had learned a thing or two from Domino and Tony. Then, the grin faded as she remembered the events of the past few weeks. If Tony hadn't had offered to upgrade the school security system when he did, then she would have been responsible for the deaths of another group of students. As it was, she bore the responsibility for the deaths of two of her students.
A death for a telepath was especially hard to deal with. Emma couldn't reach out and touch Jubilee's mind, delighting in the bouncing, breezy essence. She couldn't devote herself to unlocking Penance's mind and watching as the young woman bloomed. There was nothing she could do, which was the hardest thing to accept.
And her surviving students were so depressed, they were pale reflections of who she knew them to be. Ev hovered around like a ghost. Paige had devoted herself to mastering Domino's hellish work. Skin was so dead inside and out that he didn't seem to care anymore. M was more M-ish, and Artie, Leech and Franklin were having nightmares. And Jono was so depressed...
Not that he didn't have a right to be. He had lost his physical body and every chance of passing for human. Still, he was trying to kill himself and, after last night's attempt, Emma knew she couldn't help him. Jono had locked himself in a room and then turned on a power inhibitor. If Domino hadn't realized what was happening, there was an outside chance that it could have worked.
Rahne had suggested that the students go see her former psychologist, Dr. Samson. Emma, despite her reluctance, had agreed with certain conditions. Rahne and Celeste were to personally escort them to the doctor's office and make sure that nothing happened to them. Emma herself would be in contact with the two women all day. Finally, if any of her students needed longterm therapy, then they would stay at the school during that time.
***
Domino felt the glorious burn of a three-hour bike ride and relaxed. Checking her speed, she noted a personal best. Cable would have been hard pressed to top her.
And then her joy was gone. She missed her best friend with a nearly physical ache. Who else could she complain to that the children weren't living up to her exacting standard?
They were gone too, the children. The ones that Cable had talked her into baby-sitting so long ago. Tabitha, rowdy and brave, first to speak her mind and last to back down from her opinion. Berto, brash and gallant, charming and stuck up. Caliban, simple-minded, but loyal to the end. Julio, proud and compassionate, the first to lay his life on the line for a friend. They had been murdered by Sinister's men.
And Nate had given his life to stop Sinister. She stopped pedaling as she thought about that. No body had been discovered, but still Domino knew he was dead. Too often, something would happen and a person thought dead would come back to life. It wouldn't be that way for him.
And she missed him in a hundred ways that she couldn't have expected. The late night conversations, the way he'd run water for a second before taking a sip, the way he'd lay his magazines on the coffee table. But it was more than that that she missed. It was the missed chances, the hope left unspoken, the comfortably confused relationship they had.
She just missed Nate and her children.
***
"Chica, put down that book." Angelo commanded as he saw Paige reading his computer manual.
Paige looked up at him and smiled guiltily. She had a hunger for knowledge that never could be satisfied. Coming from a very rural community, she had learned never to turn down a chance to learn something because that chance might not be there later. At the age of fourteen, she took trig and calculus in one year, because it would be three years before the school system would have the money to pay a teacher to come in to teach the advanced maths again. Reading a couple of manuals on UNIX didn't seem bad, comparatively. "Failed your sanity check?"
Ev, who had been sitting by the window, giggled at the question and chuckled at Angel's nod. "I need that book," Ange pleaded with an outstretched hand. "I want to be sane after all."
Paige handed him the book and then asked, "Why don't you ask Tony for help?" Tony was a computer and electronic genius and had helped her with her computing project last night.
A grim look crossed Ange's face and he shook his head. "He doesn't see me, I don't see him. That's the way it should be." Changing the subject, he asked, "Ev, hand me a pen out of the desk, will you?"
Ev reached into the pen holder and pulled one out. "Here!" He tossed it to his friend, who started to make notes.
When the pen gave out, Angelo tossed it back to him. "Catch!" Ev missed and the pen hit the wall. "Sorry," Ange offered as his friend got on his hands and knees to get behind the couch.
"Oh my......" Ev muttered as he reached under the skirt and his fingers clasped around the neck of a glass bottle. Being a tidy person, he started to pull it out to throw away, thinking it to be nothing more than a bottle of Coke. Paige and Angelo turned to him as he held up a bottle of vodka instead. "What in the world?"
Paige was shocked. "Who's drinking and hiding?" She had been so busy burying herself in her books she hadn't noticed.
Ev placed the bottle on the table and looked at it. "Miss Frost, maybe?" It was mind-boggling to think that their teacher had started drinking and hiding it. "After Jubilee and Penny and Mr. Cassidy and the Hellions, she might have tried to numb it."
Paige got to her feet and started out the door. "Where you going, chica?" Angelo called to her.
She turned around, "Ah'm going ta talk ta her." Angelo shook his head. "What?"
"Whoever this is, it won't be a good idea to confront them without proof." He had been there when Tony had been at his worse and knew the pain of sitting by helplessly until Tony had decided to get help.
"Then who else could it be?" Ev asked as he shook the bottle back and forth.
Ange had his own theory about it. "Ariel's best friend died, her sister is buried in work, and Matt gave her an easy answer." At least, he thought with a bitter smile, Ariel's approach to the recent changes was honest, almost as honest as Jono's. Paige wasn't grieving, she was hyper-focused. Ev wasn't hurting, he refused to accept that Jubilee meant anything to him. M didn't miss Jubilee, she didn't feel anything. Ariel was hurting and she was numbing the pain as best possible. "It explains the change in her behavior, at least."
Paige sighed as she thought about it. Emma still was the prime suspect, but Ariel made a good runner-up. "What are we gonna do about it?" Now that Paige knew there was a problem, she was going to fix it. "Can we get whoever some help or somethin'?"
Angelo shook his head, took the bottle from Ev and hid it back where it belonged. He had done the same thing for Tony back when he was drinking. You couldn't change somebody unless they wanted to change. "We watch and see and, when we know who's having the problem, we tell Rahne or Celeste so that they can help."
***
"What do you mean you won't take her?!?" Celeste shouted into the phone. "My sister just told me that she wants help with her drinking and you won't take her because you don't accept my insurance!" The woman sputtered a response as Celeste mentally started another tirade. "Look, she needs help, I can afford help, you give help. What's the trouble?"
Rahne walked in as Celeste started to blast the woman on the other end. "That won't help," she gently said as she eased the phone from Celleste's hands.
"Yeah, but my sister needs help. What am I supposed to do?" Rahne moved behind her and started to message her shoulders as Celeste felt two tears hit her lips. "Rahne, I can't do it .... can't be there for Ariel, be there for the students, work the job Emma's got me in.... My sister's been drinking since before Valentine's Day, and I knew nothing about it."
"Why don't A call Doc Samson and ask him for his help? Maybe he can see her in his office and help her out-patient?" Rahne offered.
Truth be told, in-patient care would relieve Celeste of the duty of caring for her sister which would make it a more practical choice. "She's stubborn and has a horrible temper when it comes to psychiatrists."
"Celeste, Doc Samson treats the Hulk. A dinnae care how bad her temper is, it's nae that bad!" Celeste and Rahne giggled at the idea of Ariel's temper-tantrums being anything worse than the Hulk's.
Suddenly, it hit Celeste what her life had become when she offered a shade of the truth. "I travel too much to be a constant in her life and recovery depends on consistencies." The truth was that if Operation: Zero Tolerance was to happen, Ariel would be safer in an inpatient treatment center.
Rahne nodded at what Celeste said. It made sense, even if it was regrettable that Celeste would put work in front of her sister's needs. "He can still get her in an inpatient place."
"Someplace decent, I do hope." Emma stated as she came in the room. The tone of her voice made the two women shiver. "Much harm can occur when a child is thrown into a clinic." That was the Ice Queen that Rahne knew all too well -- remote, distant, only somewhat concerned. "At least take the time to insure that she will be safe."
Celeste looked at Emma with a expression that was nearly impossible to understand and then cocked her head to the side as the two had a telepathic conversation. "I'll do that," she promised her boss.
"And I'll inform Tony he will accompany you to wherever. I'll call Doctor Samson myself and ask that he recommend Ariel to a treatment center this afternoon." With that, Emma walked out. Rahne turned to her friend and caught the rage on her face.
"What does she think, that I'll lift my skirt to get him to drop the prices......" Celeste threw a stress ball against the wall. "Emma might use her body like that but I'll never! Tony and I are just friends!"
"Now ye know how A felt when she made a remark about Sam usin' his girlfriend tae keep an eye on the school." Rahne tried to sympathize but stopped. The way that Emma treated Celeste's and Tony's relationship hurt because even if Celeste had feelings for him, she wasn't emotionally or physically able to act on them. Sam had decided to keep the way Jubilee had died secret because, in part, he didn't want to open wounds that had barely healed on Celeste's soul.
"Now, I wish that were true." Celeste turned to her friend with as much of a smile as she could manage. "You two make a wonderful couple. And as someone who as of an hour ago, had been dating a ... bastard, I appreciate the wonderfulness of a great match."
"Sam and A are just friends!" Rahne protested as she sat down, knowing that she needed to sort out her feelings for Sam, and Celeste might be the best person to do that with. "He's a wonderful kisser though."
"Tell me, how does--" Suddenly, Celeste stopped. "My God, that's the first time I've started to enjoy myself without remembering Jubilee, Sean, and Penny." Rahne nodded, knowing that the grief process took time. "Monet told me how Jubilee died."
"We had hoped... Sam didn't want you or Paige to know the full truth..." Rahne hugged her friend and remembered the other night when Celeste started talking about her rape recovery group.
Celeste dabbed her tears away and then asked, "How does Sam kiss?"
"That's for me ta ken and for ye ... nae tae find oot!" Rahne played along. For some reason, she was jealous about the potential of Celeste and Sam dating, or the idea of them kissing.