Changing Tides [JohnProudstar]

15

"Hey, mind if I come in?" I pop my head through the crack in Marcos' bedroom door. He motions for me to come inside, and I study his desk. It's cluttered with a thick metal sheet and some welding equipment, none of which he actually needs. His powers allow him to cut through pretty much anything. "What's that?" I eye the small metal circle in his hands.

"Just something for the baby." He answers, twirling the thing in his hands. "I know it sounds insane, but I never gave up hope that we'd somehow be together when Lorna had the baby. I even bought that bottle of champagne to celebrate." He points to the green bottle of Montrachet on the dresser. "I ordered the same kind on our first date. Cost more than the meal. And Lorna just laughed at me. She said, 'Marcos, there's nothing worth spending two hundred bucks on booze for' I was gonna prove her wrong."

"It doesn't sound insane. I miss her too, but don't give up hope." I place a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Hope is what's been killing me, Tate." He looks up at me. "I don't even know if they made it out." He stands up from his desk chair.

"Of course they made it out." I cross my arms.

"How can you be so sure of that, huh? I mean, all we've got is a bunch of bank records from four different continents. The inner circle is up to something. And my kid and Lorna are gonna be right in the middle of it." He sits in front of his computer screen. "It's right there...and I can't even see it."

—
I rub my eyes, before attempting to allow them to adjust to the sunlight shining throughout the room. I turn over to see John wide awake, staring up at the ceiling. "Were you watching me sleep weirdo?" I smile, before lifting myself onto him, straddling his waist.

"I'm just thinking. It's okay." He gives me a small smile, while interlacing his fingers with mine.

"Is it about Evangeline? Are you sure she'll be able to help us track down the inner circle?" He nods, as I lay back onto my side of the comfortable queen sized bed. "So why does it look like you're working on a heart attack?"

"She and I have a...complicated relationship, I guess." He messes around with the silver rings on my fingers.

My head snaps in his direction, as I quickly sit up, crossing my legs like a kindergartner. "Complicated?" I question, and my mind begins to go a mile a minute. "Please tell me you aren't having sex with that old woman."

"Tate, it's not like that." He chuckles softly at my reaction. "When I was discharged from the marines, I was really lost, and I was taking a lot of pills to deal with the pain, so..."

"You never told me." I say quietly, laying my head onto his chest.

"That was the worst time in my life. But she got me through it." He sighs. "I doubt she'll even talk to me after Atlanta."

"There was nothing we could've done." I shake my head, looking up at the white ceiling, trying to assure myself that there really was nothing we could've done.