When Scott Met Annie

Chapter 17: Ghosts

Annie would have been lying if she said that she wasn't burning with curiosity.

For weeks — weeks — after the incident with Paul and his brother, she had been sneaking glances over at Scott when she thought he wasn't looking, though she was sure he was well-aware of what she was doing. She hoped he didn't mind.

She had only seen a little bit of what he was capable of, by his own admission, and she was surprised by how much it left her wanting to see more. He always had those glasses on; he had to use that visor to control it. But what did it look like?

It had been one thing when it was completely theoretical and she had come to terms with the fact that he was always going to keep his eyes hidden behind the glasses. But now, it was a whole other thing entirely, because she had seen the red beams coming out of his eyes, had heard the high-pitched sort of noise that they made.

That was the lowest setting possible, he'd said.

What did it look like when he really let loose? What did it sound like? It was one thing to see news reports or to see him standing with the X-Men in the newspaper, but being that close to him when it happened...

She had to admit that she was a little bit intimidated.

Of course, she couldn't help berating herself for the thought. She had spent the last few months getting to know Scott, and she knew that he wasn't intimidating... except that he could knock out two men without breaking a sweat or even really thinking about it. Except that she had seen the injuries that spoke to how much someone had to restrain him to stop him.

She was dating one of the most powerful mutants in the world, and it was just now starting to sink in for her what that meant.

It didn't change the fact that she was completely in love with him, of course. It didn't change the fact that he made her dinner with her family recipe book, that he played with Leslie Ann and Mary Beth like a big kid himself, that he remembered the names of all of her family members, that he loved the snow and seemed to relax the most when the first snowfall had happened early in the season, a week before Halloween.

It was just that she noticed more now. She noticed the fact that he was always watching the streets and seemed to know where the exits were whenever they were in public. She noticed the way he held himself — back straight and his head angled slightly away from people — so that no one could easily get to the glasses to effectively blind him. She noticed the fact that he slept lightly and was awake in an instant.

She had seen all these things before, in her friends and her family. She knew what they were signs of. But seeing his powers for herself...

She hated that it changed the way she looked at him. But the truth was, it had.

Scott didn't say anything about the fact that she had started to watch him a little closer lately. He never said anything, really, though he was quieter ever since what had happened, almost wary, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But things didn't come to a head until Halloween, when they had gone over to Rachel and Anton's house to ooh and ahh over Leslie Ann's princess costume and Mary Beth's Tinker Bell costume before the girls headed out to do some trick-or-treating.

"How're the kids, Annie?" Anton asked as the three of them sat in the living room with a bowl of candy nearby for the kids that came to ring the doorbell. Rachel was with the girls, though Annie knew that she would be back before long. Mary Beth was too young to do the whole loop of the neighborhood, and she'd probably fall asleep on Rachel's shoulder by the time Leslie Ann was done.