Standard disclaimers apply.
Hey, if you're in a movie mood, go see 'Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil,' a lush, beautiful film about
Savannah, Georgia, my wonderful hometown! (well, I'm
actually from a nearby small rural town, but close
enough!) It even co-stars the canine mascot of my alma
mater, the Universtity of Georgia, and the coolest drag
queen you ever did see, The Lady Chablis...In any case, I
highly recommend it.
Just Lucky, I Guess 35/?
Kitty leaned against the wall, patiently waiting for
Pete to finish the last few drags of his cigarette before
stepping into the waiting elevator. Shifting her small
black travel satchel on one shoulder, she unfolded the
small piece of hotel stationery and re-read Ororo's note.
Regretfully stubbing the cigarette into the small
receptacle hidden tastefully behing a large potted plant,
Pete craned his neck over Kitty's shoulder. "So wot's it
say, Pryde? They ready for us now, or do we have time for
a little nap?" Ignoring the baleful stare of the elevator
operator at Pete's obvious meaning, he waggled his
eyebrows playfully at Kitty, who, long accustomed to his
teasing, simply gave a long-suffering sigh and rolled her
eyes at him. Placing a wiry arm around her shoulders, he
grinned again at her as they stepped into the elevator
together.
Leaning against the back corner of the slowly moving
elevator, Pete turned to Kitty and asked in a good natured
tone "So, Pryde, answer me- what does yer little love note
there say?"
"Just says what rooms they're in, and for us to call
Ororo just as soon as we check in." Kitty couldn't help
but smile at the wording of the note. Despite the blocky
penmanship of the desk clerk, the words themselves were
sheer Ororo.
When the elevator had deposited them on their floor,
Kitty stepped closer to Pete and clasped his thin hand in
her own. "We'll have plenty of 'nap' time later, you
sleazy git," she whispered in response to his earlier
question, squeezing his hand tightly as they walked down
the hall to search for their room. "Right now, I just want
to drop off these bags and then find Logan and Ororo. It's
been so long since we've seen each other, and I think it's
time they finally met you..."
"Glad they put us on the same floor as the others, at
least," Pete noted conversationally as he checked the room
number on the note. "Makes things a little easier gettin'
back and forth from our room to theirs, 'specially if
things run late tonight."
Finding the proper room number, Pete inserted the key
into the lock and opened the door for her. "I guess we can
go straight over there, but it's yer loss, Pryde," he
teased, and dropped his bag in one of the chairs before
performing a cursory examination of the room. Finding
nothing, he strode across the room to stretch his lanky
frame across the huge bed. Propping himself up on one
elbow, he watched Kitty as she studied her reflection in
the large gilt-framed mirror. Nodding to herself, she
removed a brush and small makeup bag from her satchel and
began briskly touching up her hair and makeup.
"Y' don't need any of that stuff, Pryde," Pete
muttered from where he lay sprawled on the bed. "Y' look
fine without it."
Kitty blotted her lipstick, applied a light dusting
of powder and turned to face him. "Thanks, Pete, I
appreciate that," her smile was genuine as she removed
some clothing from her satchel. Stripping out of her
casual day clothes, she changed quickly into a deep blue
velvet turtleneck and matching leggings, sticking her
tongue out at his appreciative leer. "But I haven't seen
Logan and Ororo in a while, and I want to look my best."
"Like y' could look anything but," Pete snorted,
smiling proudly at her. "Yer always bleedin' gorgeous,
Pryde, you know that." Shifting so that his legs dangled
over the side of the bed, he yawned and ran his fingers
through his own unruly hair. "I think I could probably use
some work, though..." Standing up, he walked over to her
side and picked up the round brush from where it lay
discarded on the dresser and ran it through his thick
coal-black hair.
Kitty raised her eyebrows in surprise but said
nothing. "He must be more nervous about this meeting than
I thought," she realized. "I don't think I've even heard
him mention how he looks at all..." She smiled warmly at
Pete and straightened his omnipresent black tie. "You
ready, babe?"
"I don't have much choice, do I? Let's go meet th'
in-laws."
____________
"Anyway, Jean, that's where we are. The com-line's
fine- Wisdom was just being overly cautious, a trait I
think the rest of us could benefit from occasionaly. Tell
Scott not to freak out about it- nothing's really wrong.
No need to worry."
Across the Atlantic, Jean smiled wryly "Yeah, right.
Telling Scott not to worry is like telling the sun not to
shine, Nathan..."
Cable laughed humorlessly at the expression on her
holographic face. Speaking into the small Shi'ar
holophone, he sighed. "Guess you're right about that.
Anyway, everything's fine here." Without going into the
details, he'd explained to Jean that Pete had needed a
little help investigating some sensitive intelligence
information and had wanted someone with experience in the
field to help him out. It hadn't taken a telepath to know
that Jean was properly dubious of this glib explanation,
but his promise of a more thorough explanation when they
returned home seemed to satisfy her.
"Can you tell Terry that we'll be gone for a few more
days, at least- I don't know how long- and for her to go
ahead and get the team into the exercises Dom has
programmed for next week?"
When Jean had assured him she would, and made him
promise to telepathically yell if there was a problem,
Cable pressed a button, ending the transmission. Shucking
off his tight dress shirt, he placed the tiny Shi'ar
device back into its pouch in his briefcase. Relishing the
lack of constricting fabric across his skin, Cable
stretched again, bare skin rippling against the chill of
the room. 'Damn, that feels good,' he sighed.
It'd taken a while, but he was finally back in
control of his emotions. Almost as soon as he'd excused
himself from Domino about an hour before, he'd lapsed into
meditation, using practiced Askani techniques to transform
his rage at his 'son's' monstrous deeds to a managable
anger. This, he could handle professionally without the
dangerous swell of emotions that had threatened him
earlier. This, at least, he could put to the side until
the time came to deal with it properly. 'Keep telling
yourself that, Nate...'
Knowing that thoughts of Tolliver were not
particularly conducive to the calm mental state he'd need
to help brief the team, Cable sighed and walked over to
the door, looking longingly over his shoulder at the
invitingly large bed. 'A few hours sleep would be
wonderful right now,' he thought wistfully. 'Oh,
well...maybe we can call Kitty and Pete, get the rest of
the team over here, tell them the abridged version Dom and
I decided on and get them out of here so we can get some
rest. It's gonna be a long day tommorrow...'
Pushing that thought aside for the moment, Cable opened
the door and stepped into the darkened sitting room.
_________________
In the other suite, Betsy rested comfortably in the
main room. Now that the initial pleasure of removing the
abominable contact lenses had faded, she was becoming
increasingly bored. Though she couldn't sense any of the
particulars, residual telepathic pain still emanated from
the direction of Domino and Nathan's suite. 'Probably
because Nathan's such a high-level psi,' she concluded,
massaging her temple. 'From what little I've gathered,
whatever they were discussing was fairly intense, too...no
wonder the air feels like this.'
And Ororo- after quickly claiming one of the
bedrooms, Storm had retreated to it and hadn't come out
yet. 'Not that I really expected her to,' Betsy thought
dryly, remembering the literally thunderous expression on
the Ororo's face when she stormed down the hall after
trying unsuccessfuly to gain entrance to Domino and
Cable's suite. There was enough negative psychic energy
coming from *that* room to give even a gamma-level
telepath a headache, and she didn't have to wonder about
its source at all.
'Bloody marvelous joke, Domino, really, but I don't
know that it was worth it...' Betsy's perfectly drawn lips
curved in a wicked smile as she remembered their shock at
Domino's... unconventional manner of dealing with unwanted
guests, and she corrected herself. 'Well, perhaps it was
at that, but now we've all got to live with a pissed-off
Ororo...and she was not in the most pleasant mood to begin
with...' She winced as she caught a particularly dark wave
of emotion from the closed bedroom. 'This may not be the
best place to relax right now, at least not for a
telepath. I wonder what Logan's doing right now...'
Since it seemed that Domino and Cable were quite
firmly settled in the first suite Logan, recognizing the
potential awkwardness of the remaining rooming situation,
had taken his bags and gracefully extricated himself from
the situation by excusing himself to the remaining suite.
At the time, she'd been grateful he had done so, but now,
after sitting alone and bored for over an hour, she was
beginning to change her mind.
_____________
Vision automatically compensating for the much
dimmer light, Cable walked into the sitting room quietly.
"Dom?" he whispered softly, but got no response. The
curtains were drawn and the lights turned down, and
walking past one of the elegant couches, he saw the reason
why. Domino, still dressed in a now very rumpled business
suit sans blazer, was curled on one of the couches, deep
asleep. A pale tan afghan, similar to the one he'd noticed
in his bedroom, was clutched tightly around her for warmth.
Telepathically masking himself so as to not wake her,
Cable crouched on his heels and simply stared at her for
several long minutes, utterly amazed at how young she
appeared. The hard worry lines he'd grown accustomed to
seeing on her face were softened in sleep, and her pale
skin was smooth and unlined. Her sculpted features seemed
luminous in the dim light of the room and, except for the
very few strands of silver in her tussled raven hair, she
looked just like the young woman- the girl, really- she'd
been when first they'd met.
'Beautiful,' he thought to himself. 'So many years
gone by- Nathan, you are a damn fool.' Leaning forward, he
brushed her cheek with his lips, lingering over her still
form for a few moments longer. 'When this is all over,
Dom...when this is all over, I promise you..'
Beneath him, her mauve lips parted, and a loud,
off-key snore filled the air. Fighting a strong urge to
laugh, Nathan stood up and slowly removed his telepathic
shield. He coughed very lightly, under his breath, and
Domino almost immediately jumped up from her slumber,
flinging the afghan to the side and falling into an
instinctive defensive posture. Seeing that it was only
Nathan, she smiled sheepishly and retrieved the afghan,
pulling it close to her, trying to recapture the warmth of
the lost nap. "Sorry, Nate," she yawned. "Old habits,
y'know?"
Folding his arms over his bare chest, Cable grinned.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," he teased, flicking on the lights.
Noticing the luggage for the first time, his brow creased
in puzzlement. He sat down beside her on the soft couch,
and gently picked up her feet and repositioned them on his
lap. After sitting there a moment in comfortable
silence,he motioned to the luggage and wondered aloud
"How'd those get here?"
"Oh, the others brought them by before they went on
to the other room," she chuckled, a enigmatic smile on her
face.
Nodding in understanding at her words, if not her
bemused expression, he leaned back into the soft cushions
of the couch, the lingering heat from where she'd slept
warming his bare skin. "Damn, I wish we could just go back
to sleep and deal with all this in the morning."
Shifting in her seat so she faced him, Domino nodded.
"You and me both, but there's nothing we can do but just
get it over with. You about ready to call everyone else in
here?"
Eyes fastened gratefully on the luggage, Cable
nodded, pleased beyond reason that it was already here and
that was one thing less they'd have to arrange. "You wanna
change, first? Now that those bags are here, I'm dyin' to
put on some comfortable clothes."
Rising to walk over to the bags, Domino ran her eyes
over Nathan's bare chest and her own disheveled
appearance. Her lips twitched again in wry amusement as
she agreed with him. "Yeah, you're probably right. Don't
want anyone to find us like this- somebody might get the
wrong idea."
To be cont'd...
===
-DuAnn
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you. Not as
the world gives, give I unto you. Do not let your hearts
be troubled and do not be afraid.
-John 14:27
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
(
geocities.com/soho/studios) (
geocities.com/soho)