formerlysiryn | [Dated October 21st]

Terry doesn't know exactly how or why it happens, just that it does. One night she's dozing in her new apartment with Sean fast asleep on the bed beside her, a tiny ball of warmth along her side. (The place was still bare, and with every news report that showed the breach getting worse, Terry realized she'd miss her friends on the other side deeply -- but she had Sean. As much as it hurt, she couldn't imagine making any other choice, and she knew they'd understand.)

The next moment, she's waking to Sean's cries and when she stumbles out of bed in the dark and scoops him up, nothing is right. The nightlight is gone, her bedside lamp is no longer where it should be, and when she finally stumbles to a wall and flips a light switch, the room is not one she's expected.

"What the..."

Sean doesn't give her much more time to stare at her bedroom in the Darrow School for the Gifted. His piercing cries break up the sleepy, confused fog she's in, and Terry is grateful to see that if they've somehow made it back to Darrow, at least all his baby items have arrived with them. There's no apartment kitchen to find baby formula in, but the diaper bag with extra formula is sitting on his bassinet and Terry grabs it on her way out to the school's kitchen. If his food hasn't come along with them, at least she has something.

The first thing she does when she reaches the kitchen is check the fridge for the pre-made bottles she'd put away hours earlier, and Terry's only slightly surprised to find the two sitting in the fridge as though they belong there. They probably do, now, though that's a conversation she'll have to have with Raven when the sun is up and she's had a bit more sleep.

Raven. Bloody hell, if Terry is properly back, she'll be glad to see her friend again. She'll be glad to see all her friends again, and though it's very late (or very early, she can't tell yet) Terry plans on sending out some texts to let them know she is back and have them meet Sean.

But that's for daylight. For now, she's got a warm bottle of formula and a baby to feed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Raven hasn't been sleeping, and she makes no effort to manipulate her appearance into suggesting otherwise. Between "Mystique" and Theresa's decision to stay with Sean in the alternate version of Darrow, her head and heart are working overtime and any attempt at rest ends with tossing and turning.

So she's reading a book to try to keep her mind off of things (unsuccessfully, unsurprisingly) when she hears a cry. A cry she's heard before, the cry of a child. Theresa's child.

They must have come back.

Tying the sash of her dressing gown she races out of her room and takes a moment to figure out where the noise is coming from before she heads that way immediately. She's stopped in her tracks when she sees Theresa in the kitchen, and the lump in her throat isn't enough to hold back her own cry. "You're back," she says, hot tears forming in her eyes.

Even with the size of the mansion, Terry shouldn't be surprised at Raven's appearance-- with the place so big, it only made sense that they lived close to one another and the kitchen. They'd made the mansion familiar, and even though it had really only been the two of them living there and Luke stopping by regularly, it's become a real home.

One that's gaining a new occupant, if she truly is back.

"I guess so," Terry says with a shaky breath, swallowing back her own tears. She's grateful to see Raven again, to see that their friendship has meant as much to Raven as it has to Terry. "We were asleep in the apartment one moment, and now..."

Terry looks around the familiar kitchen, surprised to see her favorite mug still sitting in the drying rack next to the sink. "Now we're home."

"I didn't think you were coming back," Raven says. Most people who have disappeared from Darrow haven't come back, but they also haven't made the decision to leave. An understandable decision, in Raven's eyes, but still one that hadn't sunk in. The school had been empty enough with just the two of them, she hadn't known what to do when it was just herself.

She clears her throat, blinking back tears. "Is he okay?"

"I didn't either," Terry admits. She hadn't even had time to get used to the idea beyond brief moments of growing loneliness whenever Sean was asleep and everything fell quiet.

"He seems to be fine." Her voice grows quiet as she looks down at Sean, who is oblivious to their conversation and the world around them. His eyes are shut as he eats, his little hands balled into fists, and Terry wonders exactly how this all happened. How did she get so bloody lucky?

There are unshed tears of her own making her throat burn, and she walks over to Raven. Though she can't reach out for a hug, she stands close enough to let Raven get a look at Sean. "I don't know how or why, but we woke up in my bedroom. I'm guessin' I'm back for good. At least I hope I am."

"I hope so, too," Raven says, though the words aren't enough to encompass how much she does hope. She and Theresa might have been off to a rocky start but in the time since she's become one of Raven's closest friends, a confidant. And while she has other friends in the city, there is something to be said for the importance of having another mutant in her life, somebody who understands what others simply cannot.

Raven looks at Sean as he eats, her own mouth curling into a smile tinged with exhaustion. "He's perfect. I'm so glad he's here."

It's strange, looking into Raven's face, seeing blue and yellow and calling her a friend. Even after the disaster of the last few weeks, Terry knows this Raven is someone she will happily trust as a friend.

"He is," she agrees, looking down at Sean again. Sometimes she'll lie in bed and watch him sleep, listen to him breathe and convince herself she isn't dreaming it all up. Terry know she's going to spend most of her life fighting against the fear of losing him again, but she'd rather live with that fear than not have him in her arms.

"I haven't slept more'n a few hours," she admits with a laugh, looking up at Raven again as the tears finally spill over. "And I've been so scared. But he's perfect."

"I can watch him," Raven says immediately, and then just as quickly backpedals. "I mean, if you need someone to."

Despite what they've been through together, and it's been so much, the last couple of weeks and Theresa's version of Mystique have reminded Raven how easily things could have been different. How it's still a little bit of a miracle that Raven is as trusted as she is. It's not hard to think of reasons Theresa wouldn't trust her with baby Sean.

[Raven's still blue, I'm just presently without icons.]

Terry hardly needs to give the offer some thought; there are few friends she can truly trust here, and even fewer that she thinks she could trust with Sean's care. Raven is at the top of that list, and Terry's grateful that she's back home and has a support system now. It makes her future with Sean just a touch less terrifying.

"I'd appreciate that," she says with a nod. When the bottle makes a sucking noise, Terry looks down to see its empty and Sean looking much more content than he did minutes ago. She sets the empty bottle down on the counter and moves Sean carefully so he's resting cheek first against her chest and she begins to pat his back lightly. "I'm not sure who to even ask for help, but I could use it."

"I'm not going anywhere," Raven says by way of answer. Even with Theresa gone from the school, that much wasn't going to change. It's Raven's home, now, a lasting legacy of Charles' ideals and a promise for the future for people like them. Even if it's a promise that's taking a while to be fulfilled. "I'll help you. Both of you."

[Blue.]

"Thank you," Terry says, voice gone quiet with sincerity. She isn't sure how she wound up here, in this very moment, but if her life has lead her to this, then she'll take it. She doesn't have her entire family with her, but she has her son and she's got Raven. It's close enough.

[Dated October 21st]

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