Dove and Dart (Under Extreme Editing)

Prison or Paradise?

Dart:

"When was the last time you cleaned the place up?" I spun the end of a duster wand in the thick accumulation of cobwebs in the rafters, sending horrendous clouds of dust down to assail my nose.

James pauses in order to scramble halfway out of the chimmney, "When was the last time we cleaned the place you mean?" He grins at me, his teeth even whiter against his soot and sweat smeared face.

"God, you haven't cleaned since I was here?! No wonder these damn cobwebs have cobwebs! I feel like Spiderman made these and not tiny little house spiders!"

"Hey! Those little suckers spin some mean webs!" His voice echoes in the chimmney as he attempts to dislodge whatever died in there.

"Well yeah," I hop off the stool and let out a violent sneeze before picking up a broom. "When you let the things alone to build for over a year, I imagine they could string up an elephant with their webs!" I start sweeping at the massive pile of dust and dirt I had knocked down while cleaning up the overhead rafters.

James ignored my comment with a half annoyed sigh. I could tell he was too happy that I was back to actually be upset with me though, even if I had complained the entire time we had been cleaning.

We had already scrubbed the kitchen out of all toxicity and polished it to the dull shine of freshly polished, old wood. The bedroom was dusted, and the windows open to air out the old musty smell, and the sheets were hanging on a line to dry after we hand washed them.

It was time to settle down again. If Fury was not going to use me to make the world better, I was going to make my own little world perfect. I glanced over my shoulder as James backed out of the chimmney.

He had a much rougher background than I did. The only identity he was sure of is that he had some element of Quicksilver's genetics. He wasn't sure if the dashing hero actually fathered him or if it was expirementation based, he just knew he was fast.

James' past was a sorrow because it was all lost to him. He remebers that between the ages of six and twelve he was in a facility where harsh expirementations were performed on him. And he knows that at the age of seventeen he wound up wondering the US countryside until he found our cabin, but his memory is mostly a blank page he has been filling up.

What he always said scared him the most was that he didn't know if he escaped the facility or if he was released to wreak havoc.

I guess the unknown had never scared me as much as it did him. I never had any idea what oblivion could bring, only that my life was contained. James fears what he doesn't know about his past and how his lack of knowledge could knock him off 'the right course' one day. My life, however, was without worry or questions. I was made to be S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assest, not to have a life with choices and consequences.

When we first started cleaning I questioned James' reasoning, but know I understand. Every fresh start needs something to define it, even if it was something as small as a less beat up and dusty cottage in the middle of nowhere.

If you had asked me anywhere else, in any other time, I would have told you it was hard to settle down, but when your love can travel time and move as fast as you teleport, it makes things simpler. Especially when he is a guy that understands the depth of your pain and anger and can unlock feelings that are so hidden they scare you and suprise you and thrill you when they surface.

I know why I wanted to come back after all this time. It may have been just a year in real time, but our lifetime together in an unaging timeline was something that no amount of time could erase from memory. It was soemthing that made me human, even if logical thought classified it as unreal.