New Teams, Old Problems

Chapter 13: Not What We Wanted for Christmas

Annie had drifted off waiting for Scott to come back from reading the twins their bedtime stories and putting them to sleep, so she hadn't noticed the fact that he hadn't come back to bed until she woke up sometime in the wee hours of the morning when she thought she heard Charlie crying. She checked on both of them — but it had just been a dream, and Charlie and Chance were both deeply asleep. But there was no Scott asleep on the floor between them as sometimes happened when he fell asleep reading to them.

She pulled on a robe and some slippers and headed down the stairs, wondering if he'd gone for a late-night snack or a late run or perhaps a late simulation in the Danger Room — any of those were possible if he couldn't sleep, and he was having more and more nights like that lately.

She did, in fact, find him in the kitchen, but he looked like he had just come in from a jog, and he was filling up a water bottle only to immediately drink most of it. She wasn't surprised to see that the news was on as well — as the vote had gone late into the night after an unsuccessful filibuster to try and hold it up and prevent the voting from taking place until after the holidays. A few politicians like one Misty Cleary from South Carolina had been arguing against the bill, but nothing seemed to be stopping its progress. Though Annie had put Cleary on her Christmas card list all the same.

With a heavy sigh, Annie slipped over to where Scott was and wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her head in the space between his shoulders for a moment. She held him close without saying anything as the very quiet 'yay's of the votes kept pouring in over the television.

When she did finally speak up, it was in her quietest whisper. "What can I do?" she asked. "You and the other X-Men ... you have plans for fighting Sentinels. You know how to fight that man. Tell me what the plan is for something like this so I can help."

"Without some way to prove that they weren't in control of themselves, or to prove how they were manipulated..." Scott shook his head. "We haven't had much luck fighting legislation. All we can do is to hope it doesn't pass the house. Fight it in the courts as unconstitutional if it does. But it'd be an uphill battle."

"Well. You're used to those," she said, holding him a bit tighter as she tried to go for a tease. "You had to convince my dad to let you marry me." When that didn't get anything more than the slightest of smirks out of him, she sighed and grabbed him around the waist to turn him to face her. "You've fought legislation before — did it keep you up like this then too?" she asked as she stepped into him and laid her head on his chest.

He drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. "If they can get this through, the very first thing they'll do is come in — full force — and take Logan and K." He swallowed hard; the preparations he'd been going through with Logan were really what had been weighing on him. "If they get those two ... they will send them here to end the X-Men."

"Then we can't let them have Logan and K," Annie said simply.

"He told me how to stop them," Scott said quietly. "He wants me to run it on a sim, but—"

Annie looked up at him and could see the pain clearly written there before she very gently reached up to run a hand through his hair and kiss him. "You didn't tell me that," she said softly. "I didn't know things were that bad."

"They're not yet," Scott told her. "But Logan ... has always said that it would be easier if I practiced. But I'm trying to find a way to not have to kill him."

"You won't have to if they can't take him," she reasoned. She gestured toward the TV, where the vote tally had already passed the required 50 and so was now more of a formality than anything else. "My daddy always says you can lose a battle without losing the war. We're not out yet, Scott. I know we're not. Because I know you won't let them take those two away from their beautiful little girl."