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I never did get the chance to thank you properly.

[ After weeks of constant back and forth in terms of stability, and her soldiering through all of it (as well as the year or so he's seemingly missed), she deserves a good deal more than that, but he's not entirely sure how to put all of what's happened this month into words quite yet. There's...a lot to address. ]

For what?

[ Jean has been trying to deal with a lot of the aftermath of what she did on the out post. Her memory of events isn't complete but it seems like the more her body heals, the memories start to fall back into place. ]

Well, it isn't every day I have to ask you to drag people into the house, half dead.

[ (Usually, they're not so far gone. Typically younger...and he doesn't so often need the help.) He'd expected this to be far more awkward than it is, however; it's encouraging. ~~Granted, he hasn't really thought it out past this point, but why would he worry about that?~~ There's more than this too, which preoccupies much of his ability to really think this through, but it can wait. ]

Edited 2017-07-25 02:27 (UTC)

You're not really the kind of person to leave a person to die on the foyer, either.

[ You wheeled right into that, Charles. ]

I'm glad he made it tho.

[ Even if she doesn't know him or his relationship to the Professor, it was obvious Charles cared about him. ]

No, of course not. But it wouldn't be right to overlook your help either, would it? He'll be fine, but that's still thanks to you in no small part.

[ Credit where it's due, Jean. And he may break that information when he knows how to--when, if Arthur is ever less recalcitrant about it, but that about it is obvious will have to do for now. ]

There is something else too.

[ He remembers--well, he hasn't ever quite forgotten, rather--her upset upon his arrival. How hurt she'd been by his departure (that he still has no recollection of) and subsequent re-emergence, neither with warning. He doesn't want her to find out about this the same way. Or at least, if she knows, whatever it may mean, he'd rather she not be left alone to deal with it. ]

Thank you. I'm glad I could help.

[ Because for a few weeks there, she couldn't do much, power-wise.

Though that second message is oddly ominous through text. ]

What is it?

[ It would be better, perhaps, to tell her in person. But that won't undercut how awkward it is to say. It won't undercut the emotion, and he'd rather simply say it than wait for the wrong time. ]

Well--
Doubtless you've noticed something is missing in the house already, but I didn't want to wait to say something and make it worse.

[ And maybe, in some small part, he wants the validation that he himself hasn't gone crazy. That he hasn't been too wrapped up in everything to notice signs he perhaps should have earlier; that's failure of the worst sort. She remembers these disappearances. She would know if this was different, wouldn't she? ]

Erik is gone.

[ She's not sure how to respond at first. She takes a moment to feel out through the rest of the house before typing back the response that comes naturally after all the other times: ]

Are you sure?

[ He's been known to go off on his own before. ]

How did you know the last ones were disappearances?

[ A valid question, even if the obvious answer in his own case is so much simpler than it would ever be for Erik. Still, the feeling and intuition nags. ]

I'm quite aware of his proclivities in that department, but this is too rash, even for him.

The note that was left, for one.

[ The one that left Logan and Erik in charge of the house and school. ]

It happened on the ship, too. People would be there one day and then gone. Sometimes coming back and not remembering anything.

Like me.

[ He remembers that too. The frustration (some of it still surfacing upon occasion) in his not knowing a great many things he ought. ]

No such thing, as far as I've been able to see.

[ And the concept of Erik leaving so quietly is precisely what makes him think something is wrong. Usually, this comes on the heels of something catastrophic. Something he needed to be talked down from and then given "space" to cope with later. He's no stranger to the idea of Erik leaving. But it's always pointed and pregnant with unresolved tension that only surfaces in the strained "goodbye." ]

It's too quiet to be anything else.

[ Jean can finally feel herself deflate and she falls sideways onto her bed and pulls her nest of blankets over her. Another member of their team, their family, gone. At least the Erik she had known from her time.

She sighs a few times before writing back: ]

I'm sorry.

Jean, I'm used to this.

[ There. Frank. Plain as day. No hint of dishonesty, no matter how frustrating the idea, or how much it rankles every time. By now, he thinks, it's destined to happen sooner or later with Erik. That's simply the way the man works. The way the world works.

He isn't worried for himself. ]

You shouldn't have to be.

And it doesn't get easier, I know.

[ Just more common. ]

No, but I am. It doesn't really stop hurting, even if you're used to it and I know he's your friend.

[ Just because this sort of thing has happened before, that doesn't mean it's any easier for her any time it happens. She still misses Peter at random intervals of the day. ]

[ Charles would say that missing Erik--or at least what they had once and only manage in quiet, unspoken, small moments--is something of a permanent state of being, but somehow he imagines that continuing to push on that point isn't going to help much. ]

He is, yes. But I'll be alright. I can't do anything to change it [ or him ] today. I'm more concerned for you, at present.

[ She sighs at that and responds in a way that's almost a reflex since she traveled through the Ingress and ended up on the Moira. ]

I'm fine.

[ He stares at that message for longer than he probably should. ~~Or into the camera like he's on the Office?~~ ]

Do you really expect me to believe that?

You can believe what you want.

I'm used to people leaving by now.

Jean.

[ #teenagers ]

While I am all for letting you process as you will, I think you know as well as I do that denial isn't going to help anything.

I accept he is gone. How is that denial?

[ She just doesn't want to talk about it. She's so tired of crying. ]

I am not about to insult your intelligence by pretending that you really don't know what I meant.

[ It's not Erik being gone. He knows that. Effectively, it could be any one of them. Kurt, Raven, Logan. The hurt is the same regardless, and the hurt is where he thinks the real denial is. ]

[ She can already feel the pressure in her eyes and she rolls them, making a frustrated noise under the blankets. Dammit, Dad. ]

It doesn't matter. It can't be changed.

[ And she hasn't found any way to stop it. ]

I beg to differ. Facts may not change, no. But we do. You matter. Your feelings on this very much so too.

[ He's definitely making his way upsties now as he sends this. It has gone beyond the purview of what he can send in text. It feels too distant when that distance isn't necessary. ]

Edited 2017-07-31 14:57 (UTC)

And if I don't want to talk about how I feel?

[ She just shoots it off because she's frustrated and sometimes continuing to dance around a subject is frustrating even for her. For an empath, keeping things bottled up is both necessary and suffocating. But it's what she's known for years now. ]

Then we won't talk.

[ But that does nothing to help with the weight of it. He looks at this as he pauses outside of her door for a moment.

He isn't prying, not exactly, when he can sense the upset. She may not be projecting much, not to someone who doesn't know what to look for, but he's had years to understand the nuances of her bottled emotions at this point.

And talking, or no, he is not leaving her alone to this. That isn't right. ]

But I am coming in.

[text; bckdt to 7/21ish, after the shadow event]

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giiiirl

get off her case dad!!!

NOPE SORRY he's coming upstairs w/ hugs just you wait

not the hugs!!

TOO LATE

HUFFS

X (