The X-Project

It's been a while building but Terry and Bobby finally come to a decision about something that will change their lives forever. Then they have to decide who to tell first.



Bobby stirred the sauce so it wouldn't burn, then grabbed plates and silverware and went to set the table. "I think it's almost done," he called out to Terry, setting the table for the two of them with more care than usual. It was a special occasion, after all, and an important dinner for other reasons, as well.

Terry emerged from the bedroom holding a file folder. "Okay, give me a sec. I'll be right there." The folder was dropped on the coffee table and Terry tried not to think of it as the sound of finality. After twisting her hair up into a clip, she dashed over to the kitchen and helped Bobby finish up, tossing the salad and transferring it to the table. "This looks good, love."

Bobby shrugged and rinsed the pasta once more before transferring it from colander to serving bowl. "It's not like spaghetti's hard," he pointed out with a grin, carrying the bowl to the table and making one last trip for the sauce, leaving the bread for Terry.

"That doesn't make it less good." Depositing the basket of bread in the center of the table, she slid into her seat, bowing her head for a quick blessing. "Besides it's more food than I made tonight. Sorry we couldn't do something more interesting for Valentine's, I'm still tired from the last couple of days."

Bobby set the sauce on the table and bowed his head as well, though it was more for show than anything else. "Don't worry about it. You can make up for it by cooking dinner tomorrow night," he said teasingly, picking up the noodles and dishing some onto his plate, then passing them to his wife. They weren't avoiding the subject, really. Just...waiting until the time to discuss it was right.

"TV dinners, it is," she chirped as she served herself a heaping pile of spaghetti before covering it liberally with cheese and sauce. Mmm, spaghetti. Food of the lazy and overworked. "I thought we had a deal. You cook, I wash, no one gets food poisoning." Not that Terry was a bad cook. She was just easily distracted when it came to cooking and things had a tendency to turn out a bit... creative. "How are things at work with Nate and Ange running off to climb waterfalls?"

"Hey, you know how much I like sandwiches. Even you can't mess those up," Bobby countered easily. He took the sauce after she finished, swapping her for the salad. "It's a little more busy, but nothing too bad. Nathan's good at keeping things manageable, I'll give him that." Except when it came to himself, as often as not, of course.

Terry was just as generous with the salad as she had been with the spaghetti. It had been a long couple of days and food was absolutely a priority. "Well, there were all those years he had leading crazy people. So he's got experience. With less blowing things up now though." She snagged a piece of bread and dunked it in her spaghetti. "How's the work load? Are...they're not actually overworked, right? That's just Angelo and Nathan being freakish?"

Bobby sighed, making a seesaw motion with his hand as he tried to finish the bite of spaghetti in his mouth. "Well, there's always work to be done, but I mean--I don't know. They both have a tendency to do the whole 'weight of the world' thing, yanno?" He and Rahne always seemed able to keep on top of things, at least well enough that he was satisfied.

"Right." Terry contemplated her own dinner for a few moments, eating a couple bites. She wasn't asking because of them really. She was asking because, what if they said yes? Would the other Elpis guys work themselves into a nervous breakdown? Terry swallowed her bite of salad and toyed with her spaghetti, "Sean called today. Sent over a bit more paperwork." As subject changes went, it was clumsy and unsubtle but she wasn't really sure how else to bring it up.

"Oh yeah?" Bobby replied cautiously. It'd been hanging over their heads, carefully not spoken about since they'd returned from Ireland, as they both mulled over their options, but it was time to actually make a decision. They couldn't just put it off forever, after all. "So. I guess it's really real, huh?" He was torn. This was his home, had been for years, and he played an important role here—but it had been wearing him down for a while now, and he loved Ireland, with the sense of history everywhere, and enough of it associated with the Keep to entertain him for months, trying to learn it. At any rate, trying something different couldn't hurt, right? If it didn't work out, it wasn't as if Charles was going to forbid them to return.

Terry played with her noodles a bit more and nodded. "If we want it. We can say no. He'll hire a service to run the Keep again, like it was before. There's nothing that says he has to do this now. It can remain a matter to be dealt with in his will." Part of her wanted to do that and stay here where she knew the future was certain. Another part of her wanted just to be home. To have a home that was theirs and no one else's. But she worried even more that Bobby would say yes only because he thought she wanted him to. "What do you think about it? It's a bigger decision for you than me."

Bobby sighed, mirroring her movements with his own fork. "I don't know. I have to admit...it's tempting," he said quietly, looking at his plate. "It's a huge change, though." He looked up and gave her a faint smile. "You know...we could always try it out, see what we think. If it doesn't work out, it's not as if Charles won't let us come back."

"Aye but..." Terry shrugged, "I don't want to treat the Keep like it's just a passing whim. It's been part of my family for hundreds of years. I owe it to tradition to take this seriously." She bit her lip and looked down at her plate, "But then again...I can't quit classes. I need this semester to go smoothly. So I'd have to figure out a way to be here and there at the same time."

"...If I stayed there full-time, took over the responsibility for the Keep--then you'd be free to go back and forth," Bobby mused, slowly twirling a bite of spaghetti onto his fork. It'd mean huge changes for them both, but maybe change was a good idea, right now.

Terry glanced up at him, "Would...would you want to do that? That's a lot of work."

It wasn't something to be entered into lightly, Bobby knew. But still..."I, uh...yeah. I think I'd like it." He was in love with the keep, he knew that much already. The whole damn country, really.

He took a deep breath and smiled at her. "Let's do it, Terry. Let's figure out a way and do it."

She watched her spaghetti for another moment then set down her fork and stood up, moving around the table and nudging his shoulder until he slid his chair back and she could sit in his lap. Winding her arms around his neck, she pressed her lips to his forehead. "I don't know what to say," she whispered. "Aren't you the most wonderful man in the world." Her accent thickened and her voice as well with the rush of emotions.

No matter how many times he held her close like this, it never got old. "Nah," he muttered, rubbing her back lightly. "I just--I think I need a change. It'd actually be kinda nice to not worry about saving the world, for once." His voice had grown quiet as he'd as much as admitted to the burnout he'd been feeling more and more lately. "And I love the Keep. I love all of that history surrounding me, it's like..." He didn't have words for the comforting weight of just walking through stone halls, exploring and finding out more about the past inhabitants. "I want to share that. I want to live it."

Of course, Terry donning the leathers had something to do with it, too. Scott had been right, in a way. It was hard enough knowing she was risking her life, without being there and having to just trust her to be all right, while he did his own job. They hadn't had a Danger Room failure as spectacular as their first, but the tension was always higher in him when he was in the DR with her, and that was just training. He wasn't sure he could handle it in the field, to be honest.

Leaving the team would be Terry's biggest regret. As much as she wanted the Keep--and now that he'd said yes, she could admit exactly how much she wanted this--she still had the same dreams and goals. Still looked at Scott and Ororo's jobs with ambition and determination. Still had her plans for applying to Interpol. Balancing all of that if she even could... But home and family...the Keep...that had to come first. The thought of a home that was theirs alone. Not just a home but home in Ireland. Home at the Keep. She'd cried after Sean had asked at Christmas, she wanted to cry again.

She took a deep breath. One thing at a time. "We'll need to talk to Mr. Summers and Ms. Munroe. And you'll have to tell Nathan."

"...Yeah." The talks wouldn't be easy--neither would leaving Xavier's. Bobby'd done it before and he knew how much he'd missed the place. But this was different. He had Terry now, he was older and married and...and the thought of just making a life for them sounded too sweet to pass up without at least trying to make it work.

And he had a feeling it could work better than either of them knew. "I'll talk to Nathan this week. You wanna make an appointment to talk to Scott and 'Ro together, or just nab them when they have a free second?"

As friends or as mentors or as captains--how to tell them in a way that would respect all three of those relationships. Terry chewed on her lower lip, "Separately I think, it's more personal. I'll email them both tonight. And the Professor too--we need to tell him ourselves." She wasn't worried about what the Professor would say. She already knew that he'd support their decisions and suspected that he'd be pleased that Sean had offered in the first place. Terry's heart felt like it was going to burst.

Bobby nodded, hugging her close. "All right." He grinned at her and kissed her lightly. "We're really going to do this," he said with a hint of wonder in his voice. It was a huge step--but it felt right.