Take 45, and counting...

[Bobby Drake]

(( OOC: Open if anyone wants to join him in the DR or page him or whatever; if not, this can be a one-shot. ))

Bob picks himself up off the floor, retrieves his rifle, and selects “Reset” from the menu. OK… let’s try that again.

The room’s walls dissolve, leaving him in a carpeted hallway with felt-walled cubicles to his left and identical-looking doorways along the wall to his right – a corporate office of some kind. He considers, and discards, both the offices and the suspended ceiling as venues; he’s learned the hard way to leave himself a way out, always.

Which leaves one of the cubes, and central is better – easier for him to look around, harder for him to be spotted – so he rushes into the centermost cube he can see, grabbing a collection of software boxes and bric-a-brac as he goes, and arranges the stuff on the ledge along the top of the cube so he can peer through it without being seen.

Then he waits. The program varies target onset-time pretty radically; the first few times he ran this he got nailed by his own impatience. He’s learned better. But this time he doesn’t have to wait long… the elevator dings, and a couple of minutes later Bob sees that damned helmet bobbing along the hallway, above the cubicle walls.

Damn… no clear shot. He finally remembers to flip down the IR lenses, swearing silently at the fuzzy image – his own thermal sense would’ve given him a much better target, before – but it’s going to have to be good enough. He spots only the one target, though, which isn’t right… the sim is programmed to include one or more Brotherhood members with him. He can’t spot anyone else, though.

Well… guess it doesn’t really matter, if I can take the boss down. Not for the first time, he wonders what he’d actually do in this situation. Is he willing to squeeze the trigger when it’s real? Is he willing to give away his position by doing it, knowing whoever it is will nail him hard after that? And if he isn’t, then what the hell does he think he’s doing running the damned sim?

Ororo would be pissed if she found out… hell, he’s probably not even really authorized to use the Danger Room anymore, now that he’s not really an X-Man. He certainly isn’t authorized to be carrying live ammo… he’s not even supposed to know the weapon exists, and Logan will likely make his displeasure known once he gets back and finds it missing. But that’s later.

Stop woolgathering, Drake. OK… he can’t spot another Brother, so he decides to take the shot he has. Magneto has stopped moving, and the IR lenses give him at least a rough target he can aim at through one of the cubicle walls. He sights, takes a deep breath, slowly applies pressure to the trigger…

…and feels the shot go wild as his feet are pulled out from under him. His head hits the desk on his way down, but he still manages to block the swipe from a fur-covered claw – right, Cat-boy… probably heard or smelled me or something the minute they got out of the elevator, Buckethead was probably just distracting me and twists out of the way of a second punch before a kick to the jaw sends him reeling and the office setting disappears.

“Simulation ended. Mission failed. Probability of subsequent capture or agent death: 100%. Summary: 43 failures, 2 partial successes, 0 successes.”

He nods grimly. The good news is, he’s nowhere near ready enough to decide whether he’s actually willing to do this. For now, it’s enough to hone his skills to the point where he’ll have the choice.

Beats being helpless, anyway.

Bob picks himself up off the floor, retrieves his rifle, and selects “Reset” from the menu. OK… let’s try that again.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh walks down the hallway between the locker room and the Danger Room entrance, lost in his own thoughts. When he arrives at the entrance, he's surprised that the room is in use. The red light over the door signifies that a scenario's in progress. Hmm, okay... He stands over, leaning against the wall.

After ten minutes or so he begins to get impatient. How long has this person been in there, anyway? Josh steps over to the wall terminal. Whoever's in there has been at it for hours. As if he willed it, the light switches over to green, signifying a pause in the action. It's safe to enter.

Josh triggers the door release, and promptly he's plunged into a recreation of a library. The room echoes a little as he steps across it.

"Hey, anyone here?" It's sort of a silly question, because someone had to be. The Danger Room doesn't run programs for the fun of it. At the end of the row, Josh turns a corner around a bookshelf, and runs into Bobby. He's flicking through DR menus hovering in midair.

"Hey... what are you up to?" Josh hasn't been quite sure how treat Bobby ever since they'd all returned from the rescue mission. At first, it hadn't mattered much. Warren had made him rest, and Bobby had been unconscious in the medical lab for awhile. The two of them were both back in their dormitory at this point, though... and Bobby was different.

Besides the key difference, of course. When Josh had visited him in the lab, Bobby had told him that he'd been given a dose of the Cure by the Brotherhood to keep him from escaping. He'd been speechless at the time. Selfishly, in fact, the only thing he could think of was what it would be like to lose his own powers. Especially with all the progress he'd made in the last 6 months, losing his telepathy would be much like going blind or deaf. He'd given Bobby a hug at the time, and told him his abilities were sure to return before he knew it.

And they will! Virtually all subjects who had been exposed to the Cure experienced a return of their mutation after their body metabolized the dose. There had been only a few isolated cases - and in those cases, the mutation had been nowhere near the strength of Bobby's - where it had been permanent. Except this one could be permanent. Despite all the scientific evidence in his favor, Bobby could be one of the freak cases that defied the odds.

Fortunately, Josh had brought the PS2 down to the lab to play some games, and that'd taken his mind off of it a little. But it had to be one of those things that was with you constantly...

"Target practice, huh?" I didn't even know we had any gun simulations. Josh's own program of choice was something he had designed with Jean, sort of a telekinetic gymnasium. It was designed to allow him to play around with the various uses of his powers, and he constantly fiddled around with the parameters as he thought of new ways to employ them.

[Bobby Drake]

Round 46 is a library… not bad, actually. Long, straight aisles are a good setup if he uses them right. He starts looking for a good perch when he hears Josh’s voice, and looks around startled… that’s not supposed to be part of the sim!

It takes him a second to realize the DR door had opened, and it was the real Josh… another second to quash his resentment over not having just known that, the way he would have a week ago... a third to hastily pause the scenario. "Hey, Josh… yeah, kind of target practice. " He clicks the safety on his rifle and carefully points it toward the ground. "Not the same, but beats being helpless, y’know?"

He jerks his chin in the direction of Josh’s shoulder. "Getting better?" His own shoulder is still pretty sore, and startlingly purple, but is pretty much OK at this point. Ever since he got the full story of how his rescue was pulled off, he’s been torn between being upset at Josh for following him, grateful to him for trying to prevent the kidnapping, and feeling guilty about Josh’s injury, and over time “guilty” has been winning out. He shrugs sheepishly. " Anyway, guess I’ve been in here for a while, huh? Sorry. Got caught up in, um, something." He waves his hand vaguely. "You, um, want the room?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh reflexively touches his shoulder with his other hand. "Yeah, thanks. It's getting better. None of it was too bad, overall. Just that last hit that knocked me out." He pauses for a second. Oops. Yeah, the final blast where your boyfriend fireballed me into the wall. Except as far as I can tell, you're not sure whether you still love him or hate his guts. That one.

> "You, um, want the room?"

"Hey, we can share. I'm not that way." A small smile works its way onto Josh's face. "What sort of program were you running? I get tired of my TK one sometimes." Josh walks over and sits on a desk.

After a moment he speaks up. "How have things been, now that you're back? I haven't seen much of you lately." Which is sort of my fault. I've been spending all my time with Warren or in the lab with Toni. Which wasn't exactly true. Bobby had definitely been off doing... something, anyway. He wasn't around their room nearly as much as he used to be.

[Bobby Drake]

> " None of it was too bad, overall. Just that last hit that knocked me out."

"Yeah," Bob nods agreeably, skipping lightly over a complex roil of emotions he prefers not to examine too carefully, "Thank goodness for small favors, I guess. " He hesitates for a second and adds "In case I haven’t said this before, by the way – and I probably haven’t – thanks. For… well, for everything. For still giving a damn. I sure haven’t been giving you much reason to, lately. "

> " Hey, we can share. I'm not that way. "

Bob’s grin is too good-natured to be genuinely lecherous (but only just) as he changes the subject. “Well, about most things, sure. On the other hand, I wouldn’t give great odds on my waking up again if you found stray feathers on my mattress…" His tone is teasing, and he chuckles. "Just kidding… I think you guys get what John used to call the Golden Couple award, these days. Actually, it’s kind of cool. Do y’all have plans for your birthday? That’s coming up pretty soon, right? "

> " How have things been, now that you're back? I haven't seen much of you lately "

Bob shrugs, half-evasively. "Yeah… I haven’t really been feeling very social. Not that you should leave or anything," he adds hastily and sincerely, " just that… well, I dunno. I mean, I know I’m still welcome and everything, and this Cure business is temporary, and stuff… but still, it’s awkward. And there’s Marie, and there’s John, and, you know, stuff. So I’ve kinda stayed off the beaten track a bit, I guess." His gaze has mostly stayed fixed on his shoes throughout his reply, and he gives a self-deprecating little chuckle as he looks Josh back in the eye and tries to appear more cheerful. "Yeah, I know, huge surprise when I’m usually the life of the party. Anyway, I’ve been OK… shoulder’s almost back to normal, catching up on some classwork I missed last semester, that sort of thing. I guess next semester’ll be easier without all the X-Men stuff to worry about… you guys just better not get yourselves into too much trouble while I’m not around to save your leather-clad butt, OK? "

> " What sort of program were you running? "

He looks back down at the floor then, managing not to flush but unable to get the hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression off his face. He’s pretty sure Josh won’t approve of what he’s been doing – hell, he doesn’t entirely approve of it – and considers, for a moment, making up some kind of cover story. Then he shrugs and calls the menu back up, selecting “Show Scenario Code.”

A holoscreen floats in the middle of the room, displaying the high-level scenario script he’d put together earlier in the day and waves vaguely in its direction:

$setting = Setting->new:random danger:LOW;
Delay(15);
Agent->new:Magneto;
Number.random(1,3)->Loop(Agent.new:Brotherhood[Number.random(1,25)] unique);
$setting.success = Agent->count where_is: Brotherhood == 0;
$setting.success = Agent->count where_is: Magneto == 0 partial;

He shrugs again, somewhere in between apologetic and defensive. "Yeah, I know, we’re not supposed to run this sort of thing. I just… I dunno. Maybe it’s therapy. I just… I mean, after… " …after the way he humiliated me I want to at least pretend I can get some of my own back, he doesn’t say, not ready yet to tell anyone what really happened in that prison cell. "I dunno. You won’t tell anybody, will you? "

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> For still giving a damn. I sure haven’t been giving you much reason to, lately.

Josh smiles at this. "Hey, what are friends for? I'm always going to give a damn about you, Bobby." Even if you do seem to be pushing everyone away. Then again, it seemed to Josh that Bobby had been him away to a lesser extent than most other people around the Institute, so at least that was something.

> Well, about most things, sure. On the other hand, I wouldn’t give great odds on my waking up again if you found stray feathers on my mattress…" [...] "Just kidding… I think you guys get what John used to call the Golden Couple award, these days.

He laughs at the feathers comment, and shoves at Bobby. "You can't have him! He's mine, feathers and all!" After a moment, he becomes more serious. "Golden Couple, huh? I can sense John's characteristic sarcasm in that. Everybody has arguments, though. The nice thing is, with the telepathy, stuff is usually out in the open, so we have to discuss our problems instead of stew over them."

> Do y’all have plans for your birthday? That’s coming up pretty soon, right?

"I know he's working on some kind of surprise, but I've been trying to keep it one. He's working so hard on it I'd feel bad if a thought slipped through and ruined it. I'm pretty excited, though. Warren's a thoughtful guy." Josh's expression is a mix between happiness and a kind of 'up-to-no-good' look.

> and this Cure business is temporary, and stuff…

"Yeah, you better believe it is. You're going to be your icy little self before you know it, okay? So don't worry." Josh listens a little more, and continues. "Maybe use the time to catch up so we can actually graduate together, how's that?" He makes sure to let Bobby know he's kidding from the innocent tilt of his head.

> "I dunno. You won’t tell anybody, will you?"

Wow. I had no idea... Josh sits down onto the library desk distractedly, staring out into space a little. "Maybe it is therapy. I sort of... um..." He looks a little embarrassed. "Well, after Alkali I kind of stumbled across a DR simulation that had Jean in it. And for a couple months after I'd come and run it, here and there, just being able to talk to her and bounce stuff off her. Which was stupid, because it was a simulation and could never replace her..." His face crumples a little.

"But it was like she was still here, in a way. It was hard, back then. I wasn't there for her death, so I couldn't quite believe she wasn't coming back." Josh is quiet for a minute. "So yeah... maybe it was bad for me to do that, but I was a wreck. Maybe it's bad for you to want to hurt Magneto for what he did to you... maybe not." He looks up at Bobby. "Just promise me you won't fixate on him, okay? He's not worth it. He's a damn hypocrite." And if it wasn't his interference, the Professor and Jean would still be here.

[Bobby Drake]

> " You can't have him! He's mine, feathers and all! "

Bob contemplates a snarky comment about Warren’s playboy past, but lets it go… it’d just hurt Josh’s feelings, and besides as far as he can tell they really have been lockstepped for a while now, and people do change – Bob knows that better than most. So he just laughs and says "See? Toldya, you don’t share everything. Not that I’m – " he cuts himself off, not quite knowing what he was about to say.

> " The nice thing is, with the telepathy, stuff is usually out in the open, so we have to discuss our problems instead of stew over them. "

Was that a dig? Bob isn’t sure, but whether it was meant as one or not it certainly hits home. He shrugs defensively and nods, trying not to wince. "Yeah. Must be nice knowing you know what’s really going on in somebody else’s head." And that hits just a little bit closer to home than he’d intended, or is entirely comfortable with. " Must make picking out gifts easier, too, huh? I mean, knowing what they want and stuff. And, um…" he trails off again, staring at his feet and blushing a little. "Guess it comes in handy all sorts of ways, right?"

> " Maybe use the time to catch up so we can actually graduate together, how's that?"

Bob nods glumly. "Yeah, I thought about it. Catching up on the semester I missed, I mean. I could probably pull it off over the next month if I dropped all this stuff" – he waves vaguely at the room, the gun, the uniforms – " and concentrated on my schoolwork, but… I dunno. It’s pretty stupid, I guess, but it’s like if I slack off on this stuff then he wins, y’know?" The questioning tone is partway between rhetorical and pleading for understanding, and he shakes his head ruefully. "I guess that probably doesn’t make much sense. Anyway, I decided not to. So I graduate a semester late… not a big deal. I’ll probably take some time off before I start college anyway."

> " after Alkali I kind of stumbled across a DR simulation that had Jean in it. And for a couple months after I'd come and run it, here and there, just being able to talk to her and bounce stuff off her…"

Bob stares in surprise. Josh? Having heart-to-heart chats with the holographic ghost of his dead mentor? Now I’ve heard everything. It’s oddly reassuring, though… Josh is pretty much the most together kid Bob’s ever met, if he pulled shit like that after Alcatraz maybe this last few months wasn’t just Bob being a headcase, after all.

"Wow… I had no idea." Big surprise. I was so wrapped up in my own head, I wouldn’t have noticed if he’d been bleeding on the sheets. "So… did it help? I mean, the hologram? And, um, her coming back, and everything?" That must have knocked Josh for a loop, having her reappear like that. He hesitates for a moment, and adds softly "Guess you must’ve thought everything would be back the way it was, when she came back? Except it didn’t turn out that way."

> " Maybe it's bad for you to want to hurt Magneto for what he did to you... maybe not. Just promise me you won't fixate on him, okay? He's not worth it. He's a damn hypocrite."

"Yeah… I told him that." Just before I started blubbering like a four-year-old girl. "He got a little annoyed. But the thing is, Josh, it’s not that I want to hurt him. It’s that… well, the first time, when he hooked Marie up to that… device, the Professor put him in prison. He got out. Then at Alcatraz, they pumped him full of Cure and he disappeared. And he came back, powers and all."

Bob rubs his shoulder unconsciously as he struggles with whether or not to finish the thought, then continues. " You know what his head-count has been since then? Not to mention how many other mutants he’s brainwashed. He’s putting together a goddamned army! I just… it’s not enough to keep fighting him to a draw, over and over. Somebody has to stop him. Permanently." He gestures around the simulated library with his rifle. "This isn’t about getting out my hostility or any psychobabble like that… or, well, I guess it is a little, but not primarily. If it were I’d be winning more. It’s a training sim."

He takes a deep breath and finally says it out loud for the first time. "I don’t want to hurt him. I want him dead."

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

>"Guess you must’ve thought everything would be back the way it was, when she came back? Except it didn’t turn out that way."

"Well, the Danger Room simulation sort of helped me through the grieving process - which sounds sort of messed up. But it was random. All of a sudden the school was attacked, Jean had been gone to Boston, and then the next thing I know, Professor Xavier broke the news to me..." Josh takes a deep breath. "It helped because I was able to say goodbye on my own terms. I was so used to her being a part of my life, and then she was gone. If I'd been there, I think things would have been better. Maybe not, though. Look at what happened to Scott - Mr. Summers - and he was there for the whole thing."

Josh looks sadly over at Bobby. "I did think things were going back to normal when she returned. I saw them bring her in on a gurney to the medical lab, but as soon as they stabilized her, the Professor made me wait in Cerebro until he said I could come out." Josh shakes his head. "I was completely confused at that point... all I wanted to do was see her! It was amazing that she'd survived. I assume he was worried about my telepathic potential, and wasn't sure whether Jean or the Phoenix would show up." His voice catches a little. "Cause getting too close to the Phoenix sure was the last thing Cyclops ever did." Sometimes Josh wonders what would have happened if Logan hadn't caused the Phoenix to flee, who else would be dead. Bobby? Himself? Storm?

> "I don’t want to hurt him. I want him dead."

A ripple of surprise makes Josh forget the unhappy memories that their conversation has dredged up. You're serious about this.

"I can't say I disagree with your reasoning. Magneto is one of those people who won't stop causing havok until he dies." He pauses for a moment. "Just...ah... don't tell Storm about this one. It makes sense, but I don't think she'd like it much. Hank either."

"So... want any help? I'm ready for a fight..." Josh raises an eyebrow in Bobby's direction.

[Bobby Drake]

> "Well, the Danger Room simulation sort of helped me through the grieving process - which sounds sort of messed up."

Bob laughs. "Trust me, we’ve got a long way to go before I get to hassle you for being messed up. Besides, I can kinda relate. I think maybe I could have used the same kind of thing when Professor Xavier and Scott died. Or whatever actually happened to him."

> " Just...ah... don't tell Storm about this one. It makes sense, but I don't think she'd like it much. Hank either. "

He blinks, surprised… he’d expected Josh to give him flak for that admission; the matter-of-fact acceptance throws him a little. In fact, though he’d never admit it, he realizes he was sorta hoping Josh would talk him out of it, hoping there was some other way to deal with the problem, hoping he was somehow over-reacting to his overnight stay with the Brotherhood. Hoping this could somehow become someone else’s job, like it had been Logan’s on Alcatraz, with Phoenix.

But it isn’t, and he nods acceptance. "Yeah… I hadn’t really intended to. Thanks for understanding, though."

> " So... want any help? I'm ready for a fight..."

Bob hesitates. While he really appreciates Josh’s supportiveness, he’s embarrassed to have someone watching him go through a scenario without his powers. He feels clumsy, inadequate… normal. Which is stupid, he knows… he’s done no-powers scenarios before, they’re a standard part of their training routine… but he can’t help it.

Not to mention that, while it hadn’t really registered on him when he was focused on running and rerunning the scenario, his soreness and fatigue have caught up to him now that he’s stopped to talk.

"Actually… would you mind a raincheck? This is my 46th run, and frankly I think I’ve overdone it a bit. Could use a sauna and some food before I keel over, you know?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> "Yeah… I hadn’t really intended to. Thanks for understanding, though."

"I may understand... but I can't say I like it much, either. If Magneto is ever going to go down, I think it'll be a team effort. He's too powerful for just one of us. Unless you've been working on some new strategies for that...?" Josh looks around at the holoprogram, but all he sees are shelves and shelves of books. Hmm.

> "Actually… would you mind a raincheck? This is my 46th run, and frankly I think I’ve overdone it a bit. Could use a sauna and some food before I keel over, you know?"

"Okay. Well, I'll be here throwing things around if you want to join me afterward. I can toss you some clay pigeons if you want." Josh cycles the program out of the library setting, and the familiar sight of his TK program swims into vision. He begins adding a few lines of code.

A few moments later, he stops and looks up. Josh tentatively glances over at Bobby. "I've been meaning to ask you, but I haven't seen you much lately. Um... how are things between you and John?" Ugh, way to go, Josh. How do you think they are?

The truth was, he didn't know - and that was why he was asking. The whole situation was far too complicated for a simple answer.

[Bobby Drake]

> " If Magneto is ever going to go down, I think it'll be a team effort. He's too powerful for just one of us. Unless you've been working on some new strategies for that...? "

"Nothing brilliant… I figure he’s basically like you, has to know an attack is coming before he can do anything about it. So, y’know… ceramic rifle, ceramic bullets, sniper shot from concealment..." He shrugs, a little sheepishly, feeling he ought to have thought of something cleverer. "I know, I know: it isn’t clever, and it isn’t heroic, but… I dunno. Best I’ve come up with so far. Beats sending Metal Skeleton Man after him again, at least."

> " I've been meaning to ask you, but I haven't seen you much lately. Um... how are things between you and John?"

Bob stops short, not far from the Danger Room exit. "Things. Honestly?" He pauses a moment, as if giving Josh an opportunity to ask for an entertaining lie instead, then shrugs. "Things really aren’t, between me and John, since… well, since everything. I mean… I guess, now that I’m not a mutant anymore, I’m not… it’s not… I dunno, not the same, you know? And I… well, I think he’s hooking up with Marie now… though maybe I’m just imagining that?" He doesn’t mean for that to come out so hopeful, so childish, but it does.

Another pause, and more hesitantly adds "And, I dunno. I guess it’s kinda my own fault… I mean, after you guys pulled me out of, of, there, I was kinda caught up in my own head, y’know? And, well… I dunno. I’m just not ready to, um, pick things up again, and… well, I guess John moved on." He shrugs, knowing he doesn’t really mean it, but embarrassed to admit – to Josh, of all people – that the relationship he’d made such a fuss about had turned out not to mean as much to John as he’d thought. "Which is OK, really… I mean, there’s a lot of stuff I’ve got to get done before classes start… I don’t have a lot of spare time anyway." Which sounds bad, he knows, but not quite as bad as admitting that he’d just been tossed aside like… well, he doesn’t want to think about like what.

"Enough about that, though. How are things with Wings?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> I figure he’s basically like you, has to know an attack is coming before he can do anything about it.

Josh supposes he should be slightly disturbed (or is it a compliment?) that Bobby's compared his abilities to Magneto's, but his tactical side kicks in and he promptly forgets it. "To a lesser degree, though, because I can pick up people's idle thoughts, especially if they're focusing ill intent in my direction." He thinks for a moment. "Well, I suppose Magneto probably can sense any metal someone's carrying... maybe even the bits in their hemoglobin? That last's a scary thought." What could he do with that kind of power?

> I dunno, not the same, you know?

This raises his hackles. "Has he said something? Maybe I should have broken a couple more of his ribs." Josh looks angry. "Believe me, Bobby, anyone who treats you differently because you've lost your powers for the time being isn't worth wasting breath on."

At the same time, a little voice in the back of his head whispers the question: What if you lost your telepathy? Would things between you and Warren stay the same? He stops short, considering. One would hope they would, but without their telepathic connection their relationship would be different, without a doubt. Maybe not worse, but definitely different. And maybe Bobby didn't lose telepathy, but he lost something that was part of him. His thermal perception... losing that had to be something like losing one of the 5 senses.

> And I… well, I think he’s hooking up with Marie now… though maybe I’m just imagining that?

"John's hooking up with Marie? Huh, I hadn't noticed anything to that effect, beyond what they used to always do back when he was around before Alkali..." Josh realizes, without much effort, how much John and Marie 'hooking up' would actually hurt Bobby. Maybe he's not ready for things yet, but he's still got it for John. "Though it's not like he'd tell me if they were." The two of them had talked a little since. Josh understood (even if he didn't like it much) what John had done at Baker, and vice versa.

"I spent some time back then looking in on your triangle from the outside. All of you knew each other, so I fell into the little brother sort of position. Nothing you did, that's just the way it was. So maybe my perspective is different. John can be frustrating and his logic is insane, but he doesn't change his views about a person. When I confronted him in Baker, he thought the only way to save you from Magneto was to deliver you to him." Josh shakes his head at the logic, but plows forward. "He cares about you more than just about anyone, I think. He totally fucked up, but if you're still interested, I'm sure he is. Not that I'd blame you if you never wanted to talk to him again, though..."

> "Enough about that, though. How are things with Wings?"

"Things are great." Josh grins a little. "Warren kind of doesn't want to let me out of his sight after finding me in a singed heap last week. When we're in range of each other I can feel his presence in the back of my mind, which is why I can roam the Mansion without my guardian angel. I think he's just a little shaky from it all, and I managed to convince him not to break all of John's bones." This last he says lightly. Mostly, anyway. I don't know if the four of us will ever be able to double-date, though...

"Actually, something came up last night that I've been meaning to talk to you about. The two of us discussed it, but I wanted to run it past you, as my roommate and best friend. Warren..." Just spit it out! "Warren wants me to move in with him. And I already spend the nights that he's here in there, so it makes sense. And I can stop sneaking around the guy's wing at night..."

Josh looks over at Bobby. "I dunno. Somehow, it just seems right to me. What do you think? I feel bad leaving you all alone, but I'm crazy about him." He hesitates for a second. "This might sound sappy, but... I think Warren might be 'the one'." Josh bites his lip. "I never even knew I could feel about another person the way I do about Warren. No one... gets me the way he does."

[Bobby Drake]

> " Well, I suppose Magneto probably can sense any metal someone's carrying... maybe even the bits in their hemoglobin? That last's a scary thought. "

Bob nods. "Yeah, I’ve wondered about that. The database isn’t really sure how sensitive he is… especially since we don’t know how strong or weak he is, this long after Alcatraz. That’s why I’m not carrying metal… and I just gotta hope he won’t notice blood from a significant distance, I guess." He shrugs, knowing that’s weak, but not having a better answer. It’s not ridiculous, though – he knows first-hand that having special senses doesn’t necessarily mean you notice everything – if it did he’d have spotted the Brotherhood members hiding in the shadows back at Baker.

> " Has he said something? Maybe I should have broken a couple more of his ribs. Believe me, Bobby, anyone who treats you differently because you've lost your powers for the time being isn't worth wasting breath on."

Bob smiles, appreciating the emphatic defense, and tries not to take offense at the implication that he needs someone to fight his fights for him… he’s just oversensitive right now, and he knows it. "I appreciate that… but I think there’s been enough fighting over me for one month already. Besides, I may just be imagining it… I’ve been kinda touchy about the whole powers thing, y’know?" He wonders, though, whether Josh would say the same thing if Warren lost his wings. Probably he would, actually.

> "I hadn't noticed anything to that effect, beyond what they used to always do back when he was around…"

Bob winces, really not wanting to think about how much he’d turned a blind eye to back then. There was always something between John and Marie that had excluded him, and he’d never really wanted to know what it was or how far it went. And now, in retrospect, he still doesn’t.

> " John can be frustrating and his logic is insane, but he doesn't change his views about a person. "

Bob nods, despite himself. That much rings true, certainly… stubbornness had always been one of John’s “non-mutant powers.”

> " he thought the only way to save you from Magneto was to deliver you to him. He cares about you more than just about anyone, I think. He totally fucked up, but if you're still interested, I'm sure he is. "

Bob can feel himself going numb again, like he had back in the medlab, and almost shrugs. But somehow it’s different with Josh… maybe it’s just that it’s hard to lie to the guy and that makes it harder to lie to himself around him, Bob isn’t sure. Maybe it’s just that Josh has become one of Bob’s best friends, and the only one who isn’t part of his whole messed-up love life.

Whatever the reason, Bob can’t deny that his reaction to Josh’s testimony is anything but indifferent. Maybe he’d misread John’s signals about Marie… and about his powers. Maybe he’d just been too caught up in his own drama to really see what was happening around him. He’d done that before, why not now?

Well, why doesn’t he say so? But Bob knows that’s just not how John operates. After all, the first time Bob reached out to him, back at Mimi’s, they’d pretty much tried to kill each other… and even since then, it’s always been Bob who took the lead, even to the point of ignoring John’s protests. John making the first move, without wrapping it in layers of concealment and distraction, just isn’t in his nature.

And I knew that going in… no sense complaining now. So Josh could be right, after all, and there’s no sense in denying that that thought leaves Bob lighter-hearted than he’s been in weeks. But there’s even less sense in pretending that he can just pick up everything where they left off. So does it even matter whether John still cares?

Yes, actually. Yes it does.

> " Not that I'd blame you if you never wanted to talk to him again, though "

Bob shakes his head slowly, thoughtfully. "It’s not that… I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to talk to him, it’s more… I mean, I’m just not ready to, y’know… I can’t…" he laughs once, a little bitterly, at the realization that he’s stammering like a 14-year-old virgin, then takes a deep breath and tries again. "I’m not ready to, you know, get together again. Not yet, anyway… it’s all just too raw."

He realizes that this is probably the closest he’s come to talking to someone about how he’d broken down in front of the enemy, and how the very thought of that makes him want to hide deep inside himself. And he realizes it would probably be good for him to talk about it, and that Josh would be a good choice… and that he’s not going to. Not today, anyway.

So it’s almost a relief when the subject changes, and watching the way Josh lights up at the prospect of moving in with Warren brings an involuntary smile to Bob’s face. "Sure, of course I’m cool with it. Like you said, you’ve pretty much moved in there now, and hey, charming and delightful as I may be I totally know when I’m outclassed." He grins, putting a congratulatory hand on Josh’s shoulder. "Seriously, that’s great… I know I haven’t been the world’s most supportive friend about you and Warren, but really, I’m glad it’s working out so well for you guys. God knows you deserve it." He pauses a moment and adds "Want a hand packing and stuff, later?"