Quitting Time

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete wipes his face as he heads from his office down to the lab. After the day he's had, he's itching for a cigarette, but resisting; hesitant to break a three day streak without one.

He'd spent the better part of the day helping to place the hybrids safely, make sure each one was taken care of, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for something else out of the ordinary, trying not to be too distracted to notice something else in the works.

Leads had been a bust, which was equally frustrating.

He steps into the lab, finding that Alistaire had gone for the day, and that Kitty was still sitting in front of a group of laptops, slumped over, fast asleep.

Pete sighs deeply and steps over, kneeling down next to her chair and patting her knee gently. "Oi, Pryde."

Comments

[goawayleavemealone]

"In my defense that's less than once a year," he points out. He doesn't comment on the fact that she's kept track of just how many times he's called and when.

Pete shakes his head, moving closer to her. "No. From all accounts you two seemed pretty bloody perfect together."

[enduring_pryde]

"That's still a lot of calls from one's ex. But I took most of them, didn't I?" And never mentioned their anniversary unless Pete did.

"There were trust issues. He wanted me to withhold information from Gamora and the other Guardians and it turned them all against him. I couldn't be in that environment anymore. I tried going back to Chicago but Ororo came back to convince me to join the X-Men again." She sighs. "I'm tired if dealing with toxic, narcissistic people and that's pretty much everyone in the X-Men."

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete grins wryly and gently brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "How long have I been tellin' you that the X-Men were toxic wankers?" he asks, amused.

[enduring_pryde]

"For ages. There are some good people there, and others who have been corrupted. But there is no oversight, no governing board telling them what they can and cannot do. And it really isn't up to me to save everybody's collective asses from the fire." She presses her lips into a frown. "I mean, even when Excalibur wasn't government sponsored, we were still following the mandate of the Captain Britain Corps."

[goawayleavemealone]

He nods, not admitting that he'd worried about her being back with a group of people who had no checks and balances and basically felt they could do whatever they liked.

"Lucky for you, I've got the Home Office up my arse most of the time." He gives her a grin. "British Intelligence even has an HR department."

[enduring_pryde]

"The Guardians are scrapers but they have no oversight either. And then throw in running into cosmic-level beings at a greater frequency than on Earth." She nods. "I like structure. I like working within the confines of a governing body. I don't like Mutant Registration Acts but those have never been a problem here. There are plenty of private citizens who are Mutants here." And if you decide to be a hero, they can pull you for service at any time.

"Oh I know. I've ran into SHIELD's HR in the past. The structures aren't thst different." She was an engineer and a dancer. She loved how things got together.

[goawayleavemealone]

He nods. "Then I suppose you're in the right place."

[enduring_pryde]

She smiles. "Thank you." She puts her arms around him. "And look at you, the leader of this fine operation. You've come a long way since the angry and brooding spook I met more than a decade ago."

[goawayleavemealone]

He rolls his eyes. "Believe me, you don't need to remind me of how much of a bloody idiot I was back then. I was a mess."

He gazes into her eyes. "And you helped me. So thanks for that. From the older, wiser idiot, on behalf of the younger, much more broken idiot you used to date."

[enduring_pryde]

"You were coming off from Black Air. You still needed to get out of the clutches of the toxics." Michelle Scicluna was bad news with a capital 'b'.

"You're welcome." She reaches a hand up and traces his lips with a fingertip.

[goawayleavemealone]

He's the only one who made it out of Black Air alive, and unincarcerated.

He thinks about that a lot; that out of everyone. Scicluna and Scratch and all of those stupid bastards, he's the only one who didn't wind up dead, or imprisoned for treason.

He pulls her hand away and leans in quickly before he changes his mind, catching her lips and kissing her slowly.

[enduring_pryde]

She actually swoons, leaning in toward him, and smiles into the kiss. She hooks her fingers around his fingers.

[goawayleavemealone]

He wraps his free arm around her, letting his eyes drift shut as he squeezes her fingers.

When he pulls back, Pete takes a breath, his fingers stroking her side. "We should get home."

[enduring_pryde]

She looks up at him adoringly. "I love you, Pete." She kisses him one last time before pulling away from him and gathering her things again.

[goawayleavemealone]

That face.

This woman.

Those words.

He's completely done for, and he knows it. He has officially lost the "resist this because she's probably on the rebound" game, but in all honesty, he lost it the second he called her.

Fuck it. However long he's got with her is however long he's got, and he'll take what he can get at this point. She wants him? And this? She's got it, for however long she'll have him. If it's a week? A day? Ten years? Doesn't matter. He'll take it.

Pete chugs most of his coffee, and tosses it into the rubbish bin, before holding out a hand and waving down a cab.

[enduring_pryde]

She takes his hand and starts to chuckle. "Do you think everybody started a pool to see how long it's gonna take for us to get back together?"

[goawayleavemealone]

"Oh I know they did," Pete tells her as he lets her get into the cab first, and then follows her in. "Brian won."

He leans forward to give the cabbie the address for his flat. "28 Hill street, mate."

[enduring_pryde]

She sips her coffee and settles in the back. "Figures. After you got the initial talking to, he did seem to be rather supportive of us. And now he's one of your oldest friends."

[goawayleavemealone]

"Yep," Pete says. "That's us. Me an Braddock. Good mates. I babysit his tiny human. He drags me home from the pub when I need it. We co-lead the team together, Meggan forces me over for tea twice a month."

[enduring_pryde]

"This sounds wonderful. I'm really glad the three of you have remained friends. Brian and Meg helped me so much when I was a kid. Gave me a new home. I saw Maggie a couple of months ago. Has she gotten a lot older?" The accelerated aging had her wondering.

[goawayleavemealone]

"The aging stopped," Pete tells her. "She's two now, and reading at a college level. Her brain keeps maturing."

[enduring_pryde]

"Well that's a relief. I know that was really hitting Meg. Still, two and a college reading level. It's good that she is now going to have her auntie Kitty around." She sniffs. "And I thought I had it rough while being 12 and the youngest in my college classes."