Appellere, "drive to" or "come ashore"

by Lise

XLVI: The Chapter of Not Perishing and of Becoming Alive in the Underworld

Saith Osiris Ani: "Hail, children of Shu! Hail, children of Shu, children of the place of the dawn, who as the children of light have gained possession of his crown. May I rise up and may I fare forth like Osiris."

III.
~

DOMINO

*

Kitty finds me in the bathroom, this morning, as well. Every day for a week, I'm surprised she hasn't asked yet. She's the one that cleans them each day, so she knows something is going on. She asks, low, "How do you feel?"

"Like shit." I groan, and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. "But I'm getting used to it."

She waits for more, as I lean my head against the toilet seat wearily. Finally mutter, "Don't ask. You're right, okay? Yes, baby."

She hunkers down, unsurprised. I guess Kitty's held her tongue, but knew all along. Kindly, she asks. "Do you want some water?"

"Yeah."

She fills a glass, and says conversationally, "Ilsa might be able to give you something for that, calm your belly, you know." Pauses. "You have at least told her, right?"

"Yeah." Lift my head, and drink when she puts the glass to my lips-- then snort. "Isn't morning sickness supposed to hit in the morning, anyway? I've been up for almost an hour."

Kitty grins at me. "I wouldn't know, Dom."

"Christ," I say, and stand up shakily. Just finished puking. Marvelous. "Of all the women here, I would peg me as the least motherly. Why the fuck was I the one to get pregnant, anyway?"

"Because, Dom," she answers patiently, "You and Nate are the ones fucking every night."

"Oh, god." I groan again, and sip the water she hands me. "This means that it might happen again, doesn't it?"

She takes the glass away, and tilts her head. "Actually, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before."

I stumble to the door, and Kitty follows. I'm in little mood to talk, but still, I reply, "I'm not very, uh, what's the word?"

"Friendly?"

"Thank you, no." Sour look. My head is still spinning. "In the Pack, they thought I wouldn't ever have children."

She looks interested. Wonderful. "Really?"

"Yeah." I shrug, and pick up my boots. "I always figured they were right."

We go outside the house, wander down the path running from our front door, past shacks and garages and -- why do we have a bicycle pump? The footpath is narrow, mostly just trampled dirt. Here and there, a dandelion, which is good news-- even weeds can be eaten. Someone's taken the hull of a circus tent and put it up over the animals, so now we can pen in more goats.

Down the end outside the tent, the hunters are dressing the carcass of a-- "What the hell is that, anyway, boys?"

Patrick jumps up. "We caught it about an hour ago, Domino-- it's fine. I think. Cable things it shouldn't be poisonous, and Ilsa agrees..."

He's still standing at attention as I wave my hand and walk past. "Right, right, yeah." Dismiss him.

Kitty peers at it for a minute, and then follows me down the path again. "You know, Dom. I think that thing had six eyes."

"Good for it."

I can't seem to get excited. We've eaten weirder.

Out near the shield wall, now, as Franklin calls it. This path is the closest thing to a main street that our little town has-- it goes from our front door, around buildings made of stone, plastic, sheet metal, and canvas... through the main goat enclosure, past the water troughs, around the main greenhouse out back, and abruptly, stops.

The bar's over to my right. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

I'm going to skin that graffiti artist alive. I swear to god.

Kitty is still following me, but her eyes are elsewhere-- behind us, to the right, watching a few of our teen population flirt in the garden. Most of the right is being used for food and vegetation, most of the left is housing. The 'hospital' and the kitchens are in between. There is actually a lot more empty space than buildings. Food comes first. If we can't feed these people, what's the point?

The other day, I suggested that Franklin should make water into wine.

No one laughed.

~

NATE

*

She hasn't told me yet.

Maybe she's never going to tell me.

She comes back into the bedroom, wiping her mouth and still looking a little green. She's a stubborn bitch.

<<I heard that.>>

<<I'm not surprised.>>

She doesn't care, proves it by pulling on her boots and stomping off to wash. Our little bathroom needs fixing again, the pipes are clogged, so we're down to sponge baths. Dom's been throwing up in the main bathroom. I guess she thinks I won't notice.

Fucking pipes. What I wouldn't give for some hot water. Kitty cut her hair last week; always the practical one.

She sits on the bathroom floor and watches me wipe a dirty cloth over my body. I don't want to ask Dom the obvious question, because it doesn't seem my place.

It should be my place, but it's not, and so I stay quiet.

Ilsa knocks on the bedroom door, and I watch Dom go over to her. She grimaces a while as Ilsa explains something. Tempted to try and listen in on the link, but she'd kick my ass.

<<Damned right I would.>>

<<Dom,>> and my mental tone is a lot more patient than I really feel, <<This is stupid.>>

"What is?" she asks as Ilsa leaves.

I stand up, throw the rag in the sink. Pull my shirt back on. "I know something's going on."

She closes her eyes, and I can see her counting under her breath for patience. Without opening them she answers, "Not now, okay?"

"Why not now?" I'm getting angrier. "Ilsa, Kitty, damnit, probably even Lorna knows what's going on. Why won't you just tell me that you're pregnant!"

She opens her eyes; I can feel her shock. I nod slowly. "Yeah. I know."

Dully, she asks, "How?"

"Dom," and I'm teasing, "You think you can hide something like that around here?"

She won't look at me. "No, I suppose not."

I hesitate, don't go any closer, though I want to. "Why didn't you tell me."

"Why do you think? I know you didn't want me to."

There's absolute certainty in her voice. She thought I wouldn't want to know. "Dom--"

"And don't try that."

I sigh, rub my eye. "Fine. You didn't tell me. I know now."

"And?"

"And. So." I falter for a minute. "How is she?"

She looks a little surprised. "She's fine, Nate. Just fine."

"Healthy?" She nods, and I'm pleased. Very pleased. "How long--"

She cuts me off. "About two months along. And if you think that I want to change anything, I don't. So stop contemplating doing something we'll both regret."

"Still, Dom. Another baby around, another chance."

"You're not going soft on me, are you?" Sarcastic, but amused. Not angry. I put an arm around her shoulders. "Nathan Dayspring, soft."

I shrug. "I've never had a daughter before."

~

FRANKLIN

*

A quick five minute jaunt to check on the goats, for a bit of peace and quiet. Things are tense, have been tense lately. Nathan's planning on going out again in an hour or so-- he sensed a Magneto somewhere pretty close. That might lessen tensions a little.

I come in to an argument-- this scene is so common, now, that it's almost getting familiar. Which is depressing, in a quiet way. I don't know how to stop them arguing, so I decide to sit back and wait.

It hasn't ever been anything important: Nate blowing off steam, Dom blowing off steam. At each other, at Kitty, at anything that moves. At Irene, even, and she's sitting at the table with a grim face, watching Nathan throw around pots and pans.

Something about Dom not going with Nate-- he must have found out about the pregnancy.

"Nate," I say cheerfully, "Please don't break those. We need to be able to cook."

He snarls, "I wasn't fucking breaking them."

Trying to assess the situation is like trying to figure out who, in a pit full of angry pitbulls, barked first-- at this point, it doesn't matter and the best you can hope for is that they'll stop some time this week. Kitty is in the other room, and I can hear her trying to teach Mikhail how to read.

Nate yells, "And don't show him that!"

I'm more than a little puzzled at this point-- Domino is long gone. Irene is staring off into space, with a dark expression; Kitty is avoiding them, and Nate doesn't want Mikhail to read. I ask, "Why shouldn't she teach him to read?"

"Not with that, she shouldn't."

I glance over, and see that she's got one of Irene's predictions in her hand, pointing out and sounding out letters one by one, as Mikhail watches. "It's harmless--"

"We've got plenty of readers, don't you think?" There's steel in his voice. "She should be using a real fucking book."

He storms out again, towards the garden, after banging the last pot against the tap and leaving it with greasy bits of food stuck to the bottom. I sigh, quietly, and pick up the scrub brush. Irene says, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Oh, that's not the worst Nate gets, by far." I scrub at the sticky remains of last night's soup, and wonder idly what went in it. Probably best not to ask. I look over at Irene, who hasn't moved, hasn't relaxed. "Why is he so angry?"

"I believe, Domino and him are having a difference of opinion as to her abilities."

"Oh." In other words, Nate wants to protect her and she's having none of it. "Did they find anything?"

She smiles faintly. "More squid."

"Irene--" I start, and then shake my head. Go back to scrubbing the pot.

"Yes?"

"Have you seen anything lately? Anyone?"

She shifts her chair, and picks up the knitting that was discarded on the table. The clicking should have been a soothing noise, but it puts me on edge. I turn the tap on, and start rinsing the dishes off.

She tells me, "I'm not sure. It's all-- so jumbled. I feel as if I had a thousand eyes, sometimes, and-- this might sound ridiculous but, it feels as if I'm seeing for more than one person." She pauses, and I can hear concern in her voice. "I don't know what it means."

"Have you told Kitty?"

There's silence.

Instead of answering, she says, "I had never met any of you, before this terrible accident. I didn't know Kitty, or Cable, or any of you. The Charles Xavier I knew was a good man; ran a school. He was frequently in the news for his work with children who were considered problem cases-- mutants that people considered too dangerous for anyone else. Xavier helped them."

She looks out the window, hands still busy with wool and metal needles-- onto the alley-way between our house and the bar; ground thick with red dust that comes up in little puffs as people walk around. Boxes, moldy and mildewy, full of wiring and toothbrushes and telephone cords, are stacked along the far wall. She says, distantly, "I trip over the knowledge of the -- X-men," And the name is unfamiliar to her. "It is not helping in recognising what I see. Neither is-- the feeling that the layers of this place are folded up upon one another. As if a million of, of me, are looking into the future, and sharing the knowledge with one another."

I think it's the most she's said since she got here. It's tremendous progress. I want to encourage her, continue her talking, so I ask, "What do they see?"

Irene shrugs. "It doesn't matter." She turns away from the window, and puts the knitting down again. "Franklin, I have to tell you something."

I lean against the counter, half-watching Kitty in the living room. "What is it?"

"I-- believe. Something is happening. To me."

I frown. "What is it, Irene?"

"I--" Her head tilts down, gaze resting on the wrinkled hands in her lap perfectly still. "I haven't ever needed glasses. Never. And--" Her voice trembles. "I can't quite see you."

~

KITTY

*

"Yes, that's it, Mikhail. What letter is this?"

He looks at me, chubby arms, chubby face scrunched up in concentration. "A 'b'?"

I nod. "That's right. A 'b'. So if you've got a 'b', and then an 'a', and a 't', what would it spell?"

His eyebrows furrow even more, and then he makes a little screechy noise, frustrated. "I don't know! I don't want to do this any more."

"All right, fine. Go and play. But pick a bucket of beans." He beams, and races out the door.

I glance up, and see Nate storming around, barking orders to people and getting his gear together. It's an uncharitable thought, but I'm glad he's going. We may get some peace and quiet this way.

Irene's speaking to Franklin; he looks concerned. I join them, and catch the tail end of the conversation-- "But that's ridiculous, Irene. I mean, it shouldn't be happening like that. There's no way to prove that one is related to the other."

Her voice is high pitched, scared. "You're going to tell me, young man, that the two aren't related? She told me that the one she knew was blind! She told me!"

They look up, see me, and immediately clam up. I say, "What's going on?"

Irene says "nothing" as Franklin says, "Irene's going blind."

I drop the tea cup in my hand.

~

LORNA

*

Creeping into the kitchen to find some water for the planters out back was a bad idea.

I almost trip over Kitty, cleaning up a broken cup. Irene is looking at her hands, muttering, "I never needed glasses before."

I sit down beside her. Irene has never frightened me. I say, "Irene, are you okay?"

She clutches her head, and groans. "I-- think." Pauses, eyes snap open and stare right through me. "Kitty--"

From across the table, notepad open, "I'm ready."

Irene's mouth opens and she starts to tremble slightly, running hands over the table top. "Is she?--" I ask. Kitty nods.

Then, in as clear a voice as I've ever heard her use-- no lisp, no hesitation-- Irene says, "Nathan Dayspring is going to die. Magneto, an angry thunderbolt, and some-- is it-- the fire goddess with red hair--"

I look over, and see Domino framed in the doorway, an angry, desperate look on her face. Her belly doesn't look any bigger. She turns around and runs out without another word.

She doesn't wait to hear the rest of it.

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