Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Fiction] Enduring Connections (Fin)

[The Mariner]

Mary pulls up her goggles, her half-elf, half human frame covered in a dark blue and teal eufiber bodysuit, a beaten up camouflage poncho she wore like a scarf covering her body. There was still some mud on the top of her "boots" that were a part of her eufiber.

"Well, they don't have pay-phones in the Boundary Waters. Was doing some training there."

So... wasn't me that was unfaithful huh? She thought for a second. No wait, there is a perfectly good explanation.

Jealousy... one of the prime unbalancers for a Qi Meng.

"Survival training really. I needed to sharpen back up. Toughen up. Dan home?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan called from further in the house "I am."

His voice didn't betray the anger and consternation he felt. After all this time, now Mary came back." Sonja didn't give him time to give voice to his thoughts as she ran up beside Sarah. "Aunt Mary!" She dashed out to hug her and smiled. "It's good to see you!"

Dan nodded. "Come inside, I'm sure we've all got alot to talk about."

With that he turned to head for the Den, the only hint at his annoyance in the way he stalked off.

[The Mariner]

Mary could feel something was up.

She knew something was up from that stance. That movement. Every time before she had to run laps or get a pretty stern talking to, Dan moved like that... She decided to walk in after retreating her eufiber from her feet, leaving the dirt where it should be left, at the doormat, and stepped in barefoot.

When she arrived in the den there was a smell distinctly missing. The strong smell of PVC and Latex that Kamiko would leave behind.

"Something... something happened to the little bookworm?" She was careful not to mention things like that around Sonja. "Is she alright?"

She starts to curse herself for not staying in contact better. If something happened to Dan's first Daughter...

[Karren Gaunt]

"Kamiko is fine. Just busy with her new team lately, making her own way in the world," Sarah answered evenly over one shoulder, harmonius voice confident and quiet as she followed Dan into the den, "Productive training I take it? Nice country. There's an Enclave near Tofte on my world. Nice people, get by pretty well by my world's standards."

She chuckled easily, looking to Dan to give him a chance to play this conversation as he wished. He knew the woman better, so she'd let him take the lead.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan looked at Sarah and it was strange, his eyes were a mix of apologetic and agitated all at once. "I had no idea at all." His tone was what betrayed the most anger, and it was the cold anger that most knew to fear above all others.

He had a handle on his temper by the time everyone got into the room, and Sonja sat happily beside her Father and smiled up at him, forcing a thin smile on his face as she squeezed his hand.

He waited for Mary to come in patiently, knowing some things would need to be straightened out fast, before things got out of hand.

[The Mariner]

"Actually the training was necessary. Dan had told me recently that my focus was slipping. Living on the run has caused me to act instinctively before I returned to his life a few months ago. When I went off the grid for a month or so, I knew Dan and I may be needed in the Congo. As such I needed to get my focus back."

When she turned to Dan he indeed saw the student standing before him once more. The one before she left the first time. "I've been off my game. I'm behind. But there is no summer school for a crisis like this."

"I consider his Majesty a friend in arms. We've fought side-by-side together. I felt I should be ready when the call is made. I owe him one or two."

"But what made me come back was you, Dan... and Sonja, and Kamiko, Sarah... and... everything. I cut everything short. I intended to come back a month later... but... if I could die tomorrow, I thought I should spend my last days here. Among family."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah had heard that speech before too many times to count and even given it a few times in her darkest hours. It was never a good speech to give even when you *knew* you were going to die, just hurt both sides needlessly.

"You should have left word behind, Mary. You were missed," the blonde sizeshifter offered softly, expression serious as she offered as much of a warning she felt was hers to give, "And the world has ways of moving on when you step off the grid without telling anyone."

[The Mariner]

"I realize that... All too well now. I have to admit there's been three times in my life where I've had to prove legally I wasn't dead."

She sighs. "I have to be honest though, there was something in here..." she points to her head "...I had to straighten out. Had to make peace with. Before I could continue with a clear conscience. I think I have done that. Understood things. It was... providing a road block."

"Dammit... I'm so used to depending on myself that I forget I got people who actually give a damn about me."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan looked at Mary and his gaze didn't soften. "For all our history, I though this time would have been different."

"I shouldn't be surprised, this is how you have always been."

He was actually hurt. "You left me, you left Sonja, you left Kamiko, with nothing, for something you see as necessary, something any of us might have been able to help with, at least I could have helped."

"I moved on."

He looked to Sarah and nodded. "I promised you Mary you'd always have a home here, and I won't renege on that. But it won't be the same home you had before, or would have had, had you trusted me enough."

"I hope you can come to accept that." He was so mad, still he kept his tone even. Sonja sitting with him helped, but still it was something to see, the lightning flashing across his eyes.

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah's eyes hardened ever-so-slightly as she glanced at Sonja during the exchange between the two Elites, anger blooming as she took in how calmly the girl was taking this, at least externally. No child should have to be so adult so young, and even she had managed to protect Joy from some of the darker things in their life for longer. Mary didn't even seem to be trying to keep Sonja's innocense in mind.

"Sonja, I have a bowl of half-mixed cupcakes in the kitchen. Want to help me get them in the oven so we can have them after dinner? Your Father and Mary might want some... time to catch up," she offered to the girl, smiling widely and offering the Marine she was starting to get to know body and soul again an escape route if he wanted his youngest daughter away from this.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "Sonja, perhaps it's best you go with Sarah. Cupcakes always taste better when you bake them." He smiled genuinely.

"Daddy I want to stay.."

"Sonja, please go with Sarah, I'll fill you in later, but at least let Mary and I work this out between us."

She looked up at him. "Promise you won't hurt her."

"I promise Sonja."

She got up and took Sarah's hand, pulling her along to the kitchen.

Dan turned to Mary, waiting to hear her reply.

[The Mariner]

"No... there is nothing more to discuss. I should have known you would have went this way. Perhaps I am the only one I can trust."

She turns and starts opening a portal for her home in Minneapolis. "You said I wasn't over my problems... seems you're still haunted as well."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan looked at her. "People like us tend to be. I'm the one here smart enough to rely on those I trust to help me with them."

"You don't have to go, Mary. We've shed alot of blood together, that's a powerful bond, one of many we share. There's just some we can't."

[The Mariner]

Mary thinks for a moment, then collapses the portal.

"Smart enough? SMART ENOUGH?"

She walks up right into Dan's face. "The only intelligent person in this house right now is your Daughter, Dan. Because she understands that... Woman that is here is nothing more than a different Sarah. I should have known full well you were not as smart enough as you believe yourself to be that you've gotten over losing Sarah. THAT IS NOT SARAH! She's a copy! She's not even from this damn universe! And here you are, falling for her like you've somehow brought your damn wife back!"

"That's what it truly is, isn't it, Dan?"

She stared Dan down. She knew this would be the only way this will resolve. Here... and Now.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan looked at her and shook his head. "She looks like Sarah, Sounds like Sarah, She even has a large portion of the abilities Sarah had, Mary. But she is not the Sarah I loved and Married. Nor am I the Daniel Hawkins that she married and bore a daughter too."

"She's not a copy, she's not a clone, she's a totally different woman. Yes some of the very same attributes that drew me to Sarah have drawn me to Sarah, but those are qualities I look for in any woman." He speared her with his steely gaze.

"Qualities I did find in you, but then you showed the quality I can't tolerate in someone who's going to play a large role in helping me raise Sonja. You are unreliable."

"Training or not, even if I was the problem, I could have handled most anything, except "Nothing." That's what you gave me, and Sonja. She cried considerably after you left. She's still very attached to you, even after this. She's attached to Sarah too."

"You didn't just fail me when you left with no word, you failed Sonja. What if I needed you, if she needed you? You weren't there."

"Despite my feelings for you, something I've admitted to with Sarah, that's why I moved on."

[The Mariner]

"Very well..." Mary says.

She sets the keys to the house on the table.

"Then I'll stay gone."

She turns and walks off. "I'm just surprised how easily and fast you changed tracks."

She leaves through the front door after leaving the room. She doesn't even look back.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan stared at the key for a few moments, and then took it up. He'd leave it in the one spot only she knew about, just in case. Mary did love Sonja, even if she now hated Dan, and he wanted to believe if she was in danger, Mary would come.

He came back inside, after replacing the key to it's original spot, and went into the Kitchen.

"Is Aunt Mary coming back?"

"No Sonja, not tonight." It was all Dan could say, as he made a rule of not lying to her.

He looked to Sarah and shook his head, hoping that one day Mary would find the peace she deserved.

[Karren Gaunt]

There was a complicated expression on Sarah's face, the blonde sizeshifter, carefully pouring cupcake batter into cups. The kind of transparent calm of someone not used to lying who didn't want to bring up a topic right now. Mary's words had been predictable, expected, nothing new from the kind of irresponsible person she seemed to be under all her power and self-assurance. Still, they had stung, reminding Sarah of the hard choices and compromises she had learned to make and live with. And hopefully Mary would live to grow through the coming storm. There was always too much death in the world.

"Sonja's good cook. Picked up right where I left off, Dan, with only so much as one hint from me," she stated warmly, a promise of 'later' in her words

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan smiled, patting his daughter on the head. "Yes, she's learned well from me, and from a few others." He smiled "She's the best thing I have done with my life." Sonja hugged him and smiled.

They waited for them to finish baking, and then all three added the icing, before heading to the living room to eat them and watch a movie. Halfway through, the adults realized Sonja was asleep, but Dan sat there watching the movie, his young daughter on his lap.

Once it was over, he went and tucked her into her bed in her room and shut the door, having left Sarah to clean up. He came back into the living room, and sat on the couch, looking at Sarah. "I'm sorry about earlier tonight..."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah chuckled grimly, "It's okay. Humans are human even, and perhaps especially, when they're Nova. And someone like Mary... I met my Dan just before he was abandoned by someone he romantically trusted, someone unstable, and... Yeah, okay. Maybe it hit a little close to home. You do know I'd have never broken you two up if she hadn't ran away without a word first, right? I'm not that kind of person. Sonja, any child, doesn't need a rolemodel like that in their lives."

Her smile faded to ashes, the blonde sizeshifter taking a knee and reverting to her full size as she exhaled, tired and confessing.

[Dan Hawkins]

"You didn't break us up." He smiled, Sonja had fallen asleep on his lap. "Mary did that on her own, Sarah. And truly I'm happy that you consider yourself in that light and way regarding Sonja, truly happy." He motioned for her to follow, as he went and tucked Sonja into her bed without waking her. After he came out of the room, he turned to her. "I have a surprise for you Sarah."

He led her to another part of the house, one with empty rooms looking out into the back yard. He opened the door, and she noticed several things. The room was quite large, and had a cieling where she didn't have to stoop or crouch to move around, she could stretch most of the way out vertically before touching the cieling. After that, came the bed.

"I guess we could call it King XL, I had it custom made. You shouldn't have to sleep on a futon, This is your home now, and you deserve a bed that an fully accomodate you." It was not a cheap thing, nor were the modifications. He rose into the air to kiss her nose softly. "My own little way of saying thank you for all you've done with Sonja, and a welcoming gift." There was alot more to it than that, but he smiled, awaiting her reaction.

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah was reminded quite forciably of a similar gift, years ago. A warp her Dan insisted she be blindfolded through. The smell of damp earth and pine needles. Lapping water. And then a childish giggle that made her heart ache and a barotone 'Happy Birthday, Sarah' as light returned to reveal a log cabin built to suit a giantess, her then four year old Hope proudly holding up an oversize key to fit the oversize lock with both hands.

The blonde sizeshifter's breath hitched in her throat, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Oh, Dan. You shouldn't have," she protested despite sounding so pleased she could pop, "I haven't earned..."

A small, honest voice in her head told her to *shut up*, that she *had* earned it, and for once she listened, grabbing Dan as he attempted to drift out of range and into a kiss that spoke quite emphatically of how much she apreciated the gift... and the man who had given it.

[Dan Hawkins]

He smiled. "I can't redo the entire house." He said when she released him from the kiss, "But, here in this room you can be yourself, in your natural form."

He looked at her and nodded. "I wanted you to truly feel like this was your home."

He stroked her cheek softly, as he allowed her to hold onto him. "I guess this means you like it."

He stroked her hair softly, knowing he'd done just right here, and his other surprise could wait. "The bed's adjustable, whether you want it to be very soft, or almost hard as a rock. I wanted to give you somewhere you could rest and be yourself. Though i'll tell you now, if you let Sonja in here, she won't want to leave. She's broken two of the beds like that playing with it, and until she behaves she's not getting another like it."

"You didn't have to earn this, it's a gift, my way of saying thanks. Having you in my life, in Sonja's life is thanks enough for me."

[Karren Gaunt]

A sultry chuckle preceded Sarah's response, "I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Hawkins. Care to help me... break it in?"

She smiled wickedly and pushed the door shut with a definitive click, following that up with a dramatic implosion of her size that did not include attuning her clothing, leaving the blonde sizeshifter standing naked as the day she was born in a snowdrift of oversized clothing items.

[Dan Hawkins]

He smiled removing his shirt and nodded. "Oh yes, I can certainly do that, though, I have one last thing to show you tonight, something I tried to do, so you wouldn't feel uncomfortable or alone." He grew to over ten feet in height, just abit taller than her normal height, and still within the bounds of the room.

"I want you to be happy, and will do all I can.." she stopped him there growing to her natural size, with a finger to his lips and leading him to the bed.

When dawn's first light touched them in the morning, Dan smiled at the beautiful blonde next to him.. Sleeping they'd gone to natural size, and he flexed his quantum muscles to be her size when she woke. The previous night of lovemaking was easily the most rewarding he had ever had. It wasn't perfect, little mistakes here and there adding character, making it more than lust-driven sex, as the two novas came together. After that first time, straining the bed greatly under their strength, they returned to smaller size, and their lovemaking didn't truly end until she fell asleep atop him from exhaustion. He could only smile, and kissed her as he positioned her beside him even as her form returned to normal.

In the following month and a half, this would be an almost nightly occurrence, Once Sonja was in bed, they would retire to her room, and give into long denied desires. He held her one morning as the sun rose. She'd been eating more, and he chanced looking down, already thinking it had happened... A Quick view with Electromagnetic vision confirmed a second powerful heat source in her lower abdomen...

She looked up at him and nodded. "You're going to be a father, Daniel, again."

He just stared at her, and then kissed her deeply, "Sarah, I'm so happy..."

He looked a little ashamed. "I hope you aren't mad at me, Sarah."

[Karren Gaunt]

"It's not my first time being... pleasantly surprised by the virility of a Hawkins, Dan," responded the blonde sizeshifter with a wispful smile, after pulling out of the kiss with a chuckle, a look that promised more words later, but not now, not here, "As we both know. We'll make it work. Together. What's could happen? We're novas."

FIN

[Quantum Fire]

End of Thread

XP: 2 Standard, 2 Baseline, 3 Nova