Typing Up Loose Ends: Part Four

by Red Monster

The walk from the bus stop to the warehouse went quickly. Several days after her conversation with Aunt Tori in the garden, Theresa had taken a train to San Francisco, then a bus from the train station to the stop nearest the warehouse. From there, she rushed excitedly through the pedestrian traffic despite the heavy bag she carried. After spending several months in the barely map-worthy Looking Glass, interrupted only by a trek through the rural backwoods and up the East Coast in a truck, then a brief flight across Massachusetts, the sight of the city was exhilarating. It was two blocks from the bus stop to the warehouse where X-Force was living when she left to move in with Tori. When she reached the warehouse, the El Dorado was parked on the street in front of it, so she assumed that at least one or two of her friends were home.

Theresa dropped her bag by her feet on the front step, and knocked on the door. Within seconds, it opened, and on the other side stood her old teammate, Sam Guthrie, whose eyes nearly popped out of his face upon seeing her.

"H'lo, Sam," she said and smiled.

"Terry, what are you doing here? And with your voice back already!" he wondered. "C'mon, get in here," he ushered her through the front door, and parked her suitcase under a coat rack just beside it.

"I missed you all, and wanted to see how you were doing," she told him.

"We missed you too. C'mere, you," he said, and leaned down to embrace a beaming Theresa, then surprised her by standing up straight with her arms still around his neck, and swung her, laughing, around in a circle. "Hey, guys, get down here! Look who just came in!" he shouted towards the hallway leading to the rest of the warehouse.

Sam's commotion brought three more members of X-Force; Roberto DaCosta, Tabitha Smith, and Jesse Aaronson into the living room to see what all the noise was about.

"Sam, whose legs are those wrapped around your waist-Terry!" came Tabitha's voice.

"Yes, Tabitha, it's me!" Theresa let go of Sam and went to embrace Tabitha, another old teammate whom she was delighted to see.

"Wow, it's great to see you've gotten your voice back," said Jesse from just behind and beside Tabitha.

"And it feels great, too. Very nice to see you, Jesse," said Theresa. She paused to shake Jesse's hand, while he had apparently been expecting a hug like Sam and Tabitha, who had known Theresa for much longer.

"And how about me?" asked Roberto.

"C'mere, you!" Theresa commanded, and jumped on Roberto just as she'd been pulled up by the much taller Sam.

After Roberto was finished swinging her around a few times, it was time for questions.

"Terry, how did you get your voice back so soon?" Tabitha asked.

"That's a long story," said Theresa. "Now, where's Jimmy?"

The team all went silent and looked conspicuously confused and uncomfortable. "Uh, we really don't know..." was the prevailing answer.

"Nonsense. One of you must have seen him leave. Now where did he go?" Theresa demanded.

"Terry, why don't you just not worry about Jimmy right now?" Jesse suggested. "There's an open mike at your favorite coffee house tonight, and now that you have your voice, you can go yell at the singers!"

"I can do that another night!" said Theresa. "Right now, I want to find Jimmy."

"That was real nice," sighed a drowsily contented James Proudstar to the woman lying beside him.

"Same here," said his lover, Danielle Moonstar. "Next Tuesday night?"

"Yep," said James. He laid a light kiss on her cheek, just next to the corner of her mouth. "That, or sooner." They both laughed their sleepy, soft chuckle. Suddenly, James went bolt upright and looked at the door, his light laughter gone. "Do you hear that?" he asked Dani. "I think that's Terry's voice."

"It sure sounds like something's going on in there," said Dani. "But how can Terry be speaking again already? Besides, we weren't expecting her back here, right?"

"I don't know, and no, we weren't, but we'd better get dressed," said James, reaching for the nearest article of clothing.

Theresa marched down the hall towards James's room. "Jimmy, are you here?" she called. "Where could he be?"

Her apprehensive teammates trailed after her. "Terry, I really don't think you should go in there," said Roberto, just as she reached the door to James's room.

She was determined to look the warehouse over for James, and if he wasn't there, she'd leave a note on his pillow, which she preferred to remove when she found out he was home and surprised him in his room. "Why not?" she asked, and opened up the door, just as James ] pulled his shirt over his head.

There stood a very stricken-looking James in his t-shirt and boxers, and Dani in her shorts and bra, with her hair, usually worn in two long braids, all loose and rumpled.

"See, this is why you're supposed to knock," said Sam, and then ducked out of sight.

"Hi, Terry," was all James could manage. Dani said nothing, only grabbed her top from off the floor next to James's bed, and put it on.

Theresa wanted to scream, "How could you do this to me?!" at the both of them, or maybe just plain scream until their heads blew up, but the words didn't come out. She was hyperventilating, and couldn't stop until her vision grew blurry from the tears filling her eyes.

"Terry, please, talk to me," said James. He tried to reach out to hold her hand, calm her down, but she pulled back.

"No," Theresa sobbed. She ran through the very confused and benumbed Tabitha, Jesse, and Roberto and out of sight.

"James, what was that about?" Dani demanded. "Were you involved with her before she left, and didn't tell me?"

"No, Dani, honestly, I wasn't. Guys, did she say anything to you?" James asked his teammates.

"Only that she wanted to see you," said Jesse. "She didn't say why, though."

"Jimmy, I'm just as surprised as you are," said Tabitha. "We didn't want her to walk in on you guys, but I had no idea she'd be that upset."

"Well, I must say, she's picked a lousy time to have designs on James," said Roberto.

"Shut up, Bobby," said Dani. "She might hear you. Jimmy, put your pants back on and go talk to Theresa. If 'having designs on you' is really her problem, then no doubt she's pissed at me for stealing you away."

"Sure, she'll feel that way for about five minutes," said James. "And then she'll blame herself."

James found Theresa on the roof of the warehouse, wracked with sobs. When she saw him coming, she got up and stumbled to the farthest ledge. He followed her there, at first worried, then remembering that he was the only one in any possible danger.

"Terry, what's the matter?" he asked.

This time, she was much more articulate. "I think you know what's the matter!" she shouted at him, and then went back to crying.

"No, actually, I don't."

"Then I guess we're even," she squeaked, beginning to calm down.

"What?" he started, and then it clicked with him. "Were you planning to ask me out? Is that it?"

"Not anymore I'm not!" she shouted, looking back at him briefly from her seat on the ledge.

"So you really were," he said. "I'm sorry, Terry. I had no idea."

"How long has this been going on?" she asked.

"You mean my relationship with Dani?"

Theresa winced at the word "relationship," but went on. "Yes, that. How long have you been at this with her?"

"A few weeks," he shrugged.

"If you'd known," she croaked, "Would you have stopped?"

"I really can't answer that."

Theresa's crying started up again. "Maybe I should've waited a little while before I left," she said. "Perhaps I could've given it a little more time. But, goddammit, I thought you'd miss me, Jimmy! And all that time I was away, you really made me believe you did."

"I have missed you, Terry," he began. He gently lowered his hands to her shoulders, which he had touched so many times before, and she had always found the gesture comforting.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked.

James snapped back. "Okay. I guess I'm not the one to comfort you right now. Can I sit down beside you?"

Theresa pointed to a spot at arm's length from her. James took a seat on the ledge, just out of her reach. "I really have missed you."

"You've got a funny way of showing it," she sobbed.

"Just because I'm with Dani now, doesn't mean I'm not happy you decided to come back. It doesn't mean I'm not thrilled for you for having your voice back. And it never meant that I didn't want you here, while you were away. You don't know how much I loved keeping in touch with you. Every time you wrote back to me, I was always so happy to find it in my inbox, just so I knew you were still okay."

"Then why didn't you wait?" Theresa asked through her tears.

"Terry, you were away, and I didn't know how long you'd be gone. Just because I cared about you-and I still do-doesn't mean I was about to put my life on hold waiting for you to come back. And besides-we never really had a relationship."

"I know," Theresa squeaked. "Bobby was right. I waited too long."

"Don't listen to him; he doesn't know what he's talking about. He was away from the team for a long time, and all the time he's been with us, he's never been close to you or me. Bobby doesn't know the whole story," said James.

"Tabitha said the same thing," said Theresa.

"Tabitha? When?"

"Back when we were rescuing you from That Bitch*, Tabitha said I was 'a little late' to be getting protective of you, and she was right," Theresa recalled. "Sorry to bring that up again."

"Same thing with Tabitha," said James. "How well does she know either of us?"

"I think we all know each other pretty well here," Theresa sighed, her tears slowing down again.

"Okay, that's a good point. But still, she never heard your side of the story, and she never heard mine, either. So you don't have to take what she says about you and me to heart. I don't hold anything against you," James reassured her.

"Do you really feel that way?" Theresa asked, turning her head to look at him.

"Yes."

"Well, that makes one of us."

They were both silent for a few minutes. Finally, James broke the silence.

"Terry, I don't know what to say. I wish you'd come inside, get caught up with everyone. We'd all love to know how you got your voice back so soon-"

"Jimmy," she interrupted. "I'll be in later. Right now I need some time to myself."

"Okay," James nodded. "I'll tell you when dinner's ready, if you're not in by then."

"James, what was that about?" Dani asked him when he came back inside. He found her in the kitchen, where she and Sam helped Jesse start on dinner.

"Well," James said. "It seems Terry was hoping to ask me out when she arrived."

"Oops," said Jesse.

"And did she try it up there?" Dani asked.

"No, she just yelled at me a little and then came down hard on herself," said James. "She's still on the roof now."

"Looks like it's about to rain," said Sam. "I hope she doesn't stay up there for very long, or she'll catch cold."

"Yeah, well, if she's not in by then, I'll go up to retrieve her, and if she doesn't listen to me, she'll probably listen to you, Sam," said James.

"Did she tell any of you she was coming?" Dani asked. "Because I sure didn't expect her to walk in today."

Sam and Jesse both answered with a "No," and a shrug.

"She didn't tell me she was coming, either," said James.

"So I guess she decided to surprise us," said Dani. "And she certainly did. It would've been nice if we'd known she was coming, so we wouldn't be in bed together when she arrived."

"That was embarrassing, wasn't it?" Jesse remarked.

"Bewildering is more like it," Dani replied. "James and I didn't know what was going on, we just knew we had to have our clothes on, right now. That was no way to greet our teammate after a long absence."

Jesse started to laugh under his breath, joined quickly by Sam. James and Dani didn't laugh.

"I guess we'll find this funny a year from now," said Dani.

James went back up the roof to find Theresa standing in the rain with her back to him. She had gotten off the ledge and stepped a few feet back, and now stood slumped over with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Terry, it's me," said James, slowly walking towards Theresa.

"H'lo, Jimmy," she breathed in a tired half-moan, without looking at him.

"Listen, I know you're used to the rain, but you really shouldn't be out here in this. Please come inside, dinner's on the table."

"Jimmy, I'm sorry," she said when he was just inches behind her.

"About what?"

"About what I said before, like how I said I wanted you to miss me," she explained, still hunched over her arms and turning her back to him. "That wasn't a nice thing of me to say."

"I know what you meant, and I understand," he said. "Don't worry." He very slowly, carefully lowered his hands to her shoulders. This time, she didn't mind.

"How is it with Dani?" she asked. "Is she very special to you?"

"Dani and I really like each other. We haven't been involved for very long, but it's going pretty well so far."

"That's good," she sighed.

"Listen, Terry," he said. He lowered his arms to hold her around the waist, and, finding that she did not object, held her tighter and leaned over her to shield her from the rain. "If you just haven't been with someone in a long time, and you're lonely, then you're in the right place now. You're in a big, lively city full of great single men. Enough to keep you busy forever," he said.

She said nothing, only hung forward over his forearms and looked at their feet.

"And some of them might even like women," he finished.

Theresa broke out into a gentle shudder of laughter. "That would be a find."

"Terry, come inside with me, okay? We'll both be soaked if we stay out here any longer. I can handle the cold, but I don't want you to be upset and sick, too."

"Okay," she sighed. "I guess I've been up here long enough."

The next morning, Theresa turned on the team's PC and logged into her SF-based email account.

"Dear Aunt Tori," she wrote. "I've decided to stay here. Please send the rest of my stuff on over. Thanks so much for all your kindness toward me. Yours, Theresa." Send. Exit. Disconnect.

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