Come What May: Chapter One
Chapter One: One Night in the Name of Love.
He had quite the rugged handsomeness of a man well worn, even for his young age. His eyes were a bright sky blue and if you looked deep enough you could see the dreams the clouds carry above our heads. He had a boyish smile, one that would light up a room and you couldn’t help but smile too. Chocolate colored hair adorned his head, bangs falling into those dream filled eyes, and sweet song sprang forth from sweet lips. Christian. That was his name.
Saxton Patel had no idea she was in love, even when it smacked straight into her in the form of an actor, decorated to the bone as “The Phantom of the Opera.” She had stored away his name for further reference, as she was to be starring beside him in “The Majestic” theatre. And it really was majestic with its red velvet seats and curtains. At least five levels were above the orchestra pit, the top most leaving you with a nosebleed but the music was astounding even from the heights. That was the beauty of professional theatre, everything was beautiful and everything was, well, professional. Saxton had excused herself from the Phantom’s blue gaze so she could do a bit of exploring before meeting the director. Some inward emotion drove her to the ladder up to the flies. It was a bit unsafe, and there were plenty of other ways up, but the idea of ascending a ladder into the heavens of wiring and lights was thrilling in some way or another. The ladder was incased in an orange steel frame, so one couldn’t fall from the heights. Saxton set down her bag, her script filled binder slipping off of it as she put one pale hand on the first rung of the ladder she could reach. Green eyes flickered over to the bag as it and the script toppled over. But not even her stuff could keep her from ascending that dangerous ladder into the flies. Thus she pulled herself up, one high heel finding its way to a rung as she began the journey upward. It was a slow and rather painful journey, as high heels could be quite the obstacles. She pulled herself onto the catwalk, removing the heels so she could tiptoe along its length and look around at the lights and cameras. It was dark up there, but she had enough light to see and she headed to the middle of the catwalk labeled “34-C.” Underneath the metal labeling was a handwritten note that read, “Heaven.” She laughed lightly, before continuing on until she reached the middle. She leaned over the side, rather carefully, so she could get a look at the stage and orchestra pit. Her breath caught in her throat and was released moments later in a low gasp.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A Scottish accent came from the opposite end of the catwalk and Saxton spun around. Christian stepped forth, still in full costume. But a smile perched on his soft supple lips. “Its even better when the chandelier is up. You can see the reflections off of the crystals.” He stepped forth, the costume cape sweeping along the floor of the catwalk as he moved. He was as nimble as a cat, his dexterous hands took hers and pointed with them. “The light filters in there.” His breath was warm against her ear but she shivered. He was perfect as the Phantom. “But you should really get going to talk to the director, I’m sure he needs you...um, forgive me lass but I didn’t ask your name.”
Saxton had to quell the butterflies in her stomach before she trusted her voice enough to speak. “Saxton Patel.” She held out her hand and felt the butterflies dance when he took it in his gloved hand and then kissed it. She cocked her head to the side, watching him. Curls spilled from behind her ear and shoulder to settle against her chest and lacy top. The lights suddenly turned on, and stage hands appeared below them, getting ready for rehearsal. The blue lighting played lovely shadows along the pair, lighting their eyes and dancing along facial features. Saxton didn’t hear her Phantom suck in a sharp gasp.
Christian looked over the girl before him, admiring the womanly curves that came from teenage hood and the beautiful voice, Scottish like his own, one that was clearly trained by professionals. Or was it that his heart yearned for it to be as beautiful as it was. Her chocolate brown curls cascaded along the smooth white skin of her bare shoulder, and came to rest along her chest. He had to tear his eyes away from her hair, only to have them stuck against her bright green orbs. “Oh Riki-tiki-tiki.” He spoke in a soft whisper. She was watching the stage hands and paid no mind to what he whispered, or his wandering eyes. He had to excuse himself before he devoured her up, then and there. “I’m sorry, lass, but I’ve got to go practice.” He practically ran along the catwalk, in the direction he came from.
She looked up as the boy fled her presence and she sighed. There was a time for work and a time for play. So she re-shoed her feet and made her way nimbly down the orange incased ladder. She reached for her stuff as the practice began. She hadn’t even had time to make it to the director when one of her singing lines came up. She dropped her back, coming up behind him with her script in hand. She couldn’t just let her part go by so she began, “In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came. That voice which calls to me, and speaks my name.” She grinned to the director, “And do I dream again, for now I find...” Her eyes locked with Christian’s amazed eyes. “The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind.”
Christian felt his jaw land on the floor, and he had to recover quickly in order to make his own cue. “Sing once again with me, our strange duet.” He took a few steps in Saxton’s direction, falling completely in character as she did likewise. “My power over you, grows stronger yet.” She turned to look behind her, and in a swift move he caught her chin in the palm of his hand. “And though you turn from me, to glance behind.” He moved in closer, raising her chin and leaning down as if to kiss her. But he pulled back, spreading his arms dramatically. “The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind.”
Saxton was floored when he fell into character, he was perfect for the Phantom! And she would know as she had been listening to the soundtrack since birth and had dragged Jean and Ororo with her to this theatre in New York to see it. “Those who have seen your face, draw back in fear.” She demonstrated Christine’s courage by stepping forwards as anyone else would draw back. “I am the mask, you wear...”
As Saxton’s hand rested on the porcelain white mask, Christian pulled her fingers off. “Its me they hear...” That cue began the duet, and let go of Sax’s pale hand as they sang at the same time, “My [Your] spirit and Your [My] voice, in one combined! The Phantom of the Opera is there inside your [my] mind!”
She let the music play, as it would and as she waited for her cue. The chorus girls chimed in and she watched Christian saunter to her, his deep booming voice on key with “In all your fantasies, you always knew. That man and mystery...” Saxton cut him off with, “Are both in you!” They continued as one, “But in this labyrinth with light is blind, the Phantom of the Opera is here inside my mind!”
The rest of the song, her vocalizing and Christian’s urging her on was something drowned out by more important memories Saxton had.
eeeeeeehehheggeghghgheghghgehghgheghghg
When Christian asked her to go to dinner, her first answer was no. She had just broken up with Bobby for the up tenth time, and this would be the last time. She ended up going to her room in the apartment the cast shared and changing into a red kimono to flop down and watch “Down with Love.” She remembered the relationship and the breakup distinctly.
Bobby had just used his ice powers to make a rose for Rogue, the new girl at the Institute. Sax rolled her eyes and leaned over, “Do you do that for every lass who comes in that front door?” She smirked and gave Rogue a welcoming smile. “It’s the best pickup I’ve seen yet, I will admit.” She had hurt Bobby’s feelings, but it was in her own defense. She was afraid of his future relationship with Rogue. And that relationship lasted a few more years, before Bobby and Sax admitted that they liked each other.
It was on her seventeenth birthday, that Bobby had gotten her the bracelet and nice card. She was surprised, that was for sure. But it hadn’t ended there. Iceman took her to the movies and out to dinner that night and for many weekends after such. It was a beautiful relationship, full of laughs. But it was just teenage puppy love. You know, the kind where you want love so much you kinda trick yourself into believing it was love. Or so Saxton would say. It was nothing like the love between Scott and Jean or Peter and Jamie. Just cute ole puppy love.
But Sax hadn’t realized it was just puppy love until after the fact. After she had cheated on Bobby. Yes, she was the one who destroyed the relationship, and that was a fact she refused to hide from. I won’t sit here and tell you she’s perfect, I’ll type up the truth. The breakup was around the time Saxton received notice that Broadway wanted her to perform in “The Majestic.” She simply wouldn’t have time for boys while performing on Broadway. So in some weird ways, her dishonest cheating was good for the relationship. And it proved that she never had loved Bobby. She felt weird, and still couldn’t really meet anyone’s eyes in the Institute and she had left for downtown New York on an odd foot with everyone. It wasn’t really the wrong foot, just an odd point of standing.
She had left for the city without too much of a goodbye, and she didn’t expect anyone to come looking for her. After all, they all knew where she had gone and why. She just couldn’t face them until she worked these things out on her own. So now she lay stomach down on her bed, singing along with Ewan McGregor. That was when she heard the knock on her door, her feet sliding down the bedside and slipping into her heels from before as she wobbled towards the door. She opened it to reveal a familiar set of sunglasses. “Scooter!”
Scott Summers rose a practically unseen eyebrow and he pointed at her bed. “Sit. And don’t you ‘Scooter’ me!” He gave his younger sister figure a light shove and swat to get her to move. “Now!” He waited until she sat down to begin his pacing. “I don’t...” He began then stopped, “Did you...” He let out a sigh. “You didn’t even say goodbye to me!” His stern tone faded away as he came in contact with his feelings and what he wanted to say.
Needless to say Saxton had managed to sit down on her bed and prepare for a lecture, but Scott came up short. She rose an eyebrow and her lower lip quivered. She wasn’t prepared for this, at all. She dashed up and enveloped Scott in a hug. “I’m so sorry!” She felt better when his familiar warm arms wrapped around her slender waist and held her close.
Scott made a noise quite like “Oomph!” when Saxton smashed into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, smiling and forgetting the sternness of the moments before. “I know, kiddo, I know.” He planted a kiss atop her curly head and pulled her away at arms length to look her over. “Well, you look okay. Been eating well?” Always the same good old Scott.
Saxton rolled her eyes and sighed, “If by well you mean cheap American food...” She was rewarded with a playful smack to her shoulder for impudence. She laughed as Scott grabbed her and tickled her, “You’re a little brat!” She was told as she tried to squirm away from his tickling hands. “I know, I know! Let me go!”
Scott pulled the squirming nineteen year old into a tighter hug. “Mmhm. Maybe in a moment I will.” He enjoyed the sent of her long chocolate curls and the feel of her in his arms. It had been a while since he was able to hold her, and he guess in some ways, a lot of ways, he needed her calming influence. She could be his rock that he latched on to when things in the current of life got rough. And the fact that his little girl was grown up, well it scared him. This was his little sister, his best friend, his little girl. She wasn’t allowed to grow up yet. He released the girl and sat down on her bed. “I think everyone would like to see you again. You left so abruptly. I mean, I understand that your emotional and upset, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop loving you.”
Saxton’s green orbs landed on Scott as she sat down in a chair, kicking her heels of and reclining in her kimono and sleep wear. “The thing is, I’m always being compared to everyone else. If my school work isn’t perfect, then its ‘Oh, but Kess can do it and she’s only been in America for however long and her life sucked before this.’ Or if I’m not up to par with my physical education, its ‘But Jamie can do it, and she’s probably billions of years old!’” Sax accentuated certain points as she spoke, her Scottish accent coming in thick with anger. It was true, although not to the extent that she dramatized the situation. “I’ve finally had the chance to show the X-men that I’m just as good as everyone else, in my own special way. Hell, we’re sitting in an apartment building for Broadway actors, two streets down from “The Majestic Theatre” in the middle of downtown New York, New York!” She sighed deeply, resting her head in her hands. “I just can’t face what I’ve done yet. I’ll come back when I’m ready.”
Scott patiently let her outburst and rant her feelings out and when she finished he replied, “Promise?” He was surprised at how young he sounded, but he didn’t want to lose Saxton Patel to her fears. He couldn’t let her guilt control her life, and he would admit that he was immensely proud of her. More proud of her then he would ever be of Kess and Jamie no matter what they did. Sax was his, as Jamie was Logan’s. She was the closest to him and he would always be the proudest of her. They all were proud, but no one had the opportunity to show that pride. He ran the fingers of one hand through his hair, smiling to her. “Well, I took the liberty of inviting Jean up with me, she’s downstairs with the concierge finding a restaurant for dinner. So you should change into something nicer then P.J.’s. She’s in a red dress, if that helps. I’ll be waiting with her for you.” And he left before she could argue the point.
Saxton sighed and went to dig out her little black dress from her closet. It was a halter and the fabric fell between her breasts, showing off what cleavage she had. She was in the business of the beautiful, but she preferred to be talented rather then gorgeous. Let alone the fact that she was a mutant, in the age of rebellion and mutant discrimination. That would certainly mess with her career. She tidied up and slipped into the dress before heading down and hugging Jean. “Jeannie!” She giggled like a teenager and hugged the redhead again.
Dr. Jean Grey turned to find a healthy young adult in a beautiful dress latched on to her waist. “Saxxie!” She hugged the younger girl close. “Ooh! I’m missed you so much!” Jean ruffled Saxton’s curls and grinned down to her. “Ready for a night on the town?” She laughed as Saxton struck a pose by the door.
“Lets go to the movies! Lets go see the stars!” Sax began a spur of the moment medley as they walked outside onto the sidewalk. “On Broadway, on Broadway!” She laughed and spun around a light pole, holding up an invisible umbrella, “I’m singing in the rain, just singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling, I’m happy again!” She tried oh so hard to keep from laughing as a random couple passed them, eying her nervously. She burst into song, moving her voice up a few notches into a more operatic soprano tone. Then she held out her hands dramatically to the random couple, glancing to Scott and Jean then gesturing to everyone on the nighttime N.Y.C street. “Can you feel, the love tonight? It is where we areeee!” She marched onward, stopping at the Taxi stop and whistling. While they waited she burst into, “NYC, what is it about you? Your big, your loud, your tough!” She began a random dance number to accompany the ‘Annie’ song, one she had performed in middle school. She gestured wildly as the cab pulled up. “The hills are alive! With the sound of music!” She let Jean and Scott enter the car before giving directions to the cabby. With one last look at the street, one foot in the taxi-cab, she finished her medley. “The Phantom of the Opera is there, deep down below!” She pointed dramatically down the street before making a swift exit offstage into the waiting cab.
One look at Scott’s face was enough to put the young starlet in tears of laughing. She was such an embarrassment after all. The best part was the fact that she could sing and sing pretty damn well at that. After all she was ‘on Broadway’! She laughed and leaned against the door to giggle until her sides burst. “Oh, I wish I had that on camera!” She said, her accent protruding between peals of gleeful laughter.
[To Be Continued]