E.R./X-Men ficlet: "Caught and Contained"
Title: Caught And Contained
Fandoms: E.R./X-Men - Allegiance 'verse
Characters: Ray, Storm
Wordcount: ~ 650 words
Beta: Thank you, millari, for the language stuff and the patience with the foreign fandoms!
Summary: It didn't matter anymore if he was seen with a white-haired woman who might or might not be a mutant.
Author's Note: A missing scene from "Allegiance". Set after the first chapter, and written for the hc_bingo prompt "loss of home / shelter."
Dawn was seeping into the streets slowly, polishing the brightly red chairs of the diner with light. Only belatedly Ray had realized that he'd been here before on occasion, small place just a few blocks away from County. Good pancakes. Huddled in a fancy suit smeared with street grime, he figured that it didn't matter anymore if he was seen with a white-haired woman who might or might not be a mutant, but probably was because she was here with him. It had always felt like a petty thing to do, anyway, hiding your friends.
There was some irony in the fact that the day had come to the same end Gates had predicted - black hot coffee and attempts to sober up.
Not that Ray was sure he really wanted to.
"Do you not want to take that call?" 'Ro asked in that deceptively quiet way of hers when the phone between them started buzzing again. Ray barely looked at it. The phone calls had started up again right at the time Neela would have been getting ready for work. Neela and everybody else. It doesn't have to be Neela again. If it was her, she was probably just calling to scream at him, anyway. He'd lied to her and cheated on her just like Gates, except in a different way.
The thought occurred to him to call Katey, but he dismissed it out of hand.
"You know what," he said with a deliberate pause. "I really don't."
A look of pity crossed 'Ro's face. And he knew - he knew there were things she could be pointing out, the least of which being that the Registration Act they'd all been fearing hadn't been passed. It wasn't illegal yet to be him. She could be reminding him that mutants lived openly everywhere, even in Illinois, and it was hard and it was dangerous but it could still be done. She could have reminded him of Hank taking a position in the government despite being furry and blue, of Jean visiting her parents each summer, of Jean and Scott's plans to have crazily powerful kids.
But 'Ro had barely survived being beaten to death by her village at twelve, and Ray's first exposures to his powers hadn't been altogether uplifting, either. The two of them had always shared that, sneaking off to be free when Scott and Warren and Jean had never understood the concept - the beaten and broken ones amongst what amounted to a bunch of rich kids.
Maybe that was why 'Ro said, deliberately, "Do you want to go anywhere before?"
Ray stared at the table for a moment, not quite at the phone. Before - before they left Chicago, and everything that it had meant. Soon they'd be boarding the Blackbird, and he'd tried to remember what all the controls did, how to land the damn thing without breaking it apart. The thing that he wouldn't be doing was stepping into the E.R. to start his next shift, and fucking up an incoming trauma, bitching about bad security and rolling his eyes about Morris.
The guys from Westchester were good people, too insufferably good to stand some days. They'd never say 'I told you so.' For them, the school was home - not irrefutable proof that you had failed.
He wouldn't have to face Neela again, the disbelief in her eyes becoming shock becoming a sense of betrayal. He'd never find Luka's eyes fixed on him like he was under siege, never see Morris freeze in fear when he entered a room. He didn't have to do any of that.
The guys had still come, was the thing. It was 'Ro but it could have been Hank or Scott or Jean, sitting across from him and waiting to be told what they could do to help.
"Let's go get my guitar."
He left the cell behind on the table. 'Ro didn't make him pick it up.
Fandoms: E.R./X-Men - Allegiance 'verse
Characters: Ray, Storm
Wordcount: ~ 650 words
Beta: Thank you, millari, for the language stuff and the patience with the foreign fandoms!
Summary: It didn't matter anymore if he was seen with a white-haired woman who might or might not be a mutant.
Author's Note: A missing scene from "Allegiance". Set after the first chapter, and written for the hc_bingo prompt "loss of home / shelter."
Dawn was seeping into the streets slowly, polishing the brightly red chairs of the diner with light. Only belatedly Ray had realized that he'd been here before on occasion, small place just a few blocks away from County. Good pancakes. Huddled in a fancy suit smeared with street grime, he figured that it didn't matter anymore if he was seen with a white-haired woman who might or might not be a mutant, but probably was because she was here with him. It had always felt like a petty thing to do, anyway, hiding your friends.
There was some irony in the fact that the day had come to the same end Gates had predicted - black hot coffee and attempts to sober up.
Not that Ray was sure he really wanted to.
"Do you not want to take that call?" 'Ro asked in that deceptively quiet way of hers when the phone between them started buzzing again. Ray barely looked at it. The phone calls had started up again right at the time Neela would have been getting ready for work. Neela and everybody else. It doesn't have to be Neela again. If it was her, she was probably just calling to scream at him, anyway. He'd lied to her and cheated on her just like Gates, except in a different way.
The thought occurred to him to call Katey, but he dismissed it out of hand.
"You know what," he said with a deliberate pause. "I really don't."
A look of pity crossed 'Ro's face. And he knew - he knew there were things she could be pointing out, the least of which being that the Registration Act they'd all been fearing hadn't been passed. It wasn't illegal yet to be him. She could be reminding him that mutants lived openly everywhere, even in Illinois, and it was hard and it was dangerous but it could still be done. She could have reminded him of Hank taking a position in the government despite being furry and blue, of Jean visiting her parents each summer, of Jean and Scott's plans to have crazily powerful kids.
But 'Ro had barely survived being beaten to death by her village at twelve, and Ray's first exposures to his powers hadn't been altogether uplifting, either. The two of them had always shared that, sneaking off to be free when Scott and Warren and Jean had never understood the concept - the beaten and broken ones amongst what amounted to a bunch of rich kids.
Maybe that was why 'Ro said, deliberately, "Do you want to go anywhere before?"
Ray stared at the table for a moment, not quite at the phone. Before - before they left Chicago, and everything that it had meant. Soon they'd be boarding the Blackbird, and he'd tried to remember what all the controls did, how to land the damn thing without breaking it apart. The thing that he wouldn't be doing was stepping into the E.R. to start his next shift, and fucking up an incoming trauma, bitching about bad security and rolling his eyes about Morris.
The guys from Westchester were good people, too insufferably good to stand some days. They'd never say 'I told you so.' For them, the school was home - not irrefutable proof that you had failed.
He wouldn't have to face Neela again, the disbelief in her eyes becoming shock becoming a sense of betrayal. He'd never find Luka's eyes fixed on him like he was under siege, never see Morris freeze in fear when he entered a room. He didn't have to do any of that.
The guys had still come, was the thing. It was 'Ro but it could have been Hank or Scott or Jean, sitting across from him and waiting to be told what they could do to help.
"Let's go get my guitar."
He left the cell behind on the table. 'Ro didn't make him pick it up.