¹ Roar || The Gifted: John Proudstar

23|hear my Pain

Taylor swallowed as she went into her room, silently shutting the door behind her and she sighed. "How long have you been waiting?" Taylor asked as John was sitting on the bed and he was looking at her.

"A while." John freely admitted as Taylor was glancing at him, until he moved over to the other side and then, Taylor sat down quickly on the spot where he had vacated. "I wanted to apologize, because... I completely lost my temper earlier." John said as she was staring at him.

"Bernie told me everything that Gus told him. The main takeaway being, that about all of the things that Gus told them... That he never mentioned this place." Taylor said and John rolled his eyes.

"It is still not enough to justify people staying behind! Especially not people like Bernie, who is all too clearly related to one of the X-Men. We need his support to draw more people to the Mutant Underground and we need it now, more than ever!" Taylor was nodding at the expected words.

"Down that hallway John, what do you hear?" She asked as John's eyes narrowed sharply in confusion at the words. "Follow the sound of Bernie's emotions. That kid, has not shown any since his father left. His mother died in childbirth, he turns into ice when he gets emotional or when he can't hold it back anymore and now, he found out that he just lost the person that he arguably cared about the most!" She said and John turned to look at her.

"Now I am just really confused. Taylor, I actually thought that he liked Lauren?" John asked and then Taylor was shaking her head at him. "What am I missing?" John asked.

"Bernie... He loved Gus. Not like a brother did John, not like how you did. Bernie was on another level and as you well know, it wasn't the same." Taylor said and John was turning his senses towards Bernie's room as he could hear him crying, feeling all of the teenager's emotions, almost as if they were his own. "The Macon people, they have memories here. All of them. You can't just take them away from their home."

"But this isn't their home. This is Gus and Julianna's home..." John countered.

"That they rebuilt as a safe house, for these people in case, things went to hell!" Taylor's voice was turning into a growl and John was shaking his head. "Fine, then we leave the kids here to protect them. We leave Darren and the other, younger kids behind..."

"We can't leave Darren here. Julianna, she won't allow it. Julianna has already lost two of her four kids to the Inner Circle, she won't let Darren out of her own sight. The only one that she might be persuaded to leave here is August, but that is a big if and you know it." John pointed out.

"Yeah, I know." Taylor murmured and she lowered her head. "I should never have called her back into this. All I have done, is just ruined her life all over again." She said.

"Julianna, she was the one who said to call her no matter what." John said and he was reaching out to her, grabbing one of her hands. "It was my call. Both of us decided to call her, Julianna knew what she was getting back into..."

"So, she knew that her husband was still alive?" Taylor asked with a hoarse tone in her voice and John's eyes widened, when the reality of what he had said, fully sunk in.

"Taylor..."

"So she knew that her husband and the father of her children was still alive? You are telling me that she knew, that he was turned into a Hound? That he was already dying on the inside, due to the drugs that they had pumped him full of?" Taylor was shaking her head, her tears had just already begun pricking at her eyes as now, they were falling. "She knew that they got him addicted to Kick, they tore him apart and turned him against us?"

"That isn't what I meant." John said as Taylor was yanking her hand out of his grasp, before she was now pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes as she was shaking, crying all over again. "Taylor, come here." John said and then, he was swiftly moving to sit next to her again.

His arms went around her and she was rocking back and forth. "I have got you, little lion. I promise." He whispered as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

Taylor squeezed her eyes shut and she moved her arms around him in return. "It isn't your fault." John murmured softly against her head and Taylor was reaching up to her neck, where the lion necklace was lying and she was clenching it in her hand.

Taylor pushed him out of the way and she was racing out of the room, running out of the house and she was tearing through the fields.

Taylor let out a strangled, wailing roar as she was falling onto her knees again. Before she had hit the ground, both of her hands had turned into front paws. Her clothes were torn to shreds and for the first time in a long time, it was sheer emotional pain that caused her to shift.

Taylor let out a terrible roar, that echoed across the fields and now, she was resting her head on her paws. Taylor was going silent, dropping her head down to rest on her paws as she was saying nothing.

"Up here." It hadn't taken John very long at all to find Taylor, but for her sake, he acted as if it did. Julianna walked along with him and she was shaking her head.

"I would have come back anyway." Julianna asked and John glanced over at her. "I mean you know that, right?" She asked and John nodded.

"Yeah, I know." John said and silently, he was looking over at the lioness, which was still laying in the grass. "Jules, I have never seen her like this. Not, not even when she first mutated." John said softly and Julianna was nodding quickly. "I'm really worried about her, she's acting like everything is her fault."

"Well, I don't know where she could have picked that up from." Julianna said and John stared at her. "John, you know that you are like that. You are like my brother, John. I know you are better than anybody else now, except for maybe Taylor." Julianna said and he tilted his head.

"Would you talk to her?" John asked as Julianna smiled, before she was nodding quickly and John sighed. He turned around and was walking away, while Julianna was walking towards the lion.