The X-Project

Another scene after the family bonding in the gym. Alex takes his dad to the clinic to get cleaned up and then takes him back to Lorna's to get him out of he mansion for a while. Lorna isn't pleased to have ANOTHER surprise today.


Once they'd gotten Chris cleaned up in the medlab by Amelia, the two
Summers men fled the mansion so Alex could make good on his promise to
hide his dad from Jean. Alex didn't think he had anything to worry
about, that Jean would no doubt calm Scott down and possibly even get
him thinking rationally about the whole thing, but still this gave him
an excuse to get his dad away from the pressures of the mansion and
introduce him to the three other important people in his life, so what
if two of them had four legs?

Knowing Lorna would have started dinner already and hoping she
wouldn't chew him out for springing this on her, he called out the
moment he got the door open. "Hey Lorna! I'm back." There was the
sound of a scuffle from the bedroom that then produced a gold, brown
and white stampede to the door. Laughing, Alex knelt down to greet the
happy dogs. "Hey guys, miss me?" He grinned up at Chris. "Dad, meet
Crush and Lili." Crush went over and smelled Chris' leg for a moment
before opening his mouth in a tongue filled grin and wagging his tail,
while Lili inserted herself into Alex's arms and had no plans on
leaving.

"Good timing, you can make the salad," Lorna called from the kitchen,
over the sound of the dogs going wild. Wiping her hands on the towel
over her shoulder, she headed out of the kitchen, "I was thinking that
we could watch a movie or...oh." She stopped, a rail thin woman in a
dark blue jeans and a violet tunic. Her hands started toward her
hair, then twitched the hem of her shirt instead. For a moment, she
couldn't figure out who the dark haired man was but the mustache and
more than that... "Oh. You must be Mr. Summers, you look like Scott.
Hi, uh, sorry everything such a mess. Are you staying for dinner?"
She could add a side dish, it would stretch the main course to cover
three. If she could stop acting like an idiot.

"You must be Lorna." Chris gave her a half-smile, more because of the
rising bruises than any actual hesitancy, and offered her his hand.
"Alex has told me... well, not a lot about you. But enough, I
think."

Lorna felt her eyes widen and smiled to hide it, crossing the space
quickly to shake his hand, "Lies, all of it lies. Except the good
things, those were true. Come in, sit down. Can I get you a drink or
something?" She looked around and spared half a moment to send Alex a
rather accusatory look. Why hadn't he warned her? "There's not
much in the way of soda, mostly juice, iced tea..."

"Iced tea?" Chris ventured, then crouched down to be closer to eye
level with Crush. "Hello there."

Alex returned her look with an innocent shrug around his arm full of
spaniel. What was he susposed to do? Call and say that he had to hide
his father before he and Scott try to beat the crap out of each other
again? It wasn't like he'd planned this! "Of course I only had good
things to say, what did you think I was going to tell him?" He said
lightly in response as he moved into the room, slinging Lili into one
arm as he moved into the living room. "Come on in Dad, I promise, they
won't bite."

Crush of course looked Chris right in the eyes...before attacking with
his tongue at full force.

"Perfect, be right back." She reached out and snagged the back of
Alex's shirt while Chris got mauled by the golden. "Alex, come help me
with the drinks please." He so wasn't getting off the hook that
easily.

With small startled squeak, Alex was yanked into the kitchen. He held
onto Lili like a protective shield. "Look, I'm sorry but I had to get
him out of there okay? You saw those bruises? That were from him and
Scott trying to figure out who was the bigger man!"

"You couldn't have called? Texted? Send a carrier pigeon?" Lili
wriggled in Alex's arms, barking though whether she was attempting to
agree or disagree with her girl was debatable. Lorna hushed her and
moved to get the iced tea out. "Something that would indicate that
you were bringing your long lost father over and maybe I could get the
laundry off the couch?"

"Hey! It's not my fault I walked in on them beating the crap out of
each other. Then I had to take Dad to the medlab and well...I didn't
plan this I swear but he asked me to get him out of the house before
Jean found out and..well...I didn't know what else to do!" He sighed
as he took a breath. "I'm sorry. I am. I guess I just forgot with all
the testosterone flying around."

Lorna looked at him steadily for a minute then shook her head and
sighed, "You're killing me, here. Just killing me. You can't do this
to me, I'm fragile." She lifted the tray of teas she'd assembled and
headed back into the living room, "Crush, down! No jumping on
people."

"That's all right. He seems friendly enough." Chris's attention was
more for his surroundings, however. "This is... quite the place. A
lovely home, really." He was giving Lorna and Alex a speculative look,
though.

"Ain't it? Lorna did a great job with it. I was lucky she had it."
Alex said as he came out into the living room, putting Lili down so
she could go attack Crush, sending them both into a full out game into
the middle of the living room, ignoring the humans. He'd been
purposefully vague on how he'd come to live with Lorna, not wanting to
vilify Shiro to his dad, especially since they were talking about.

"You should have seen in when I moved in. Old lady central. I've never
seen so many cabbage roses in my life. Wallpaper should be outlawed,"
Lorna joked as she handed a glass to Chris, "Imagine this place in
pink with flowers the size of your head on the wall and you'll have an
idea of how much better things are now. Luckily the landlord was all
for letting me repaint everything. I should have taken pictures so
that people can really appreciate it."

Chris smiled absently, as if trying to envision it. His gaze moved
back to Lorna, sharpened. "You don't strike me as a pink person," he
said, "even on two minutes of acquaintance."

Lorna beamed at him, "I look fantastic in pink. This house, not so
much. Sit down, won't you? I've got to run back to dinner but I'm
sure you and Alex have lots to chat about."

"I think you just made her day." Alex said teasingly, looking between
the two of them, pride and happiness in his eyes as he moved to follow
her orders and got a lap full of Lili again.

Chris sat down, eyeing Alex as Lorna headed back to the kitchen. "She
seems very nice," he said mildly, a smile tugging at his lip.

Alex was still beaming. "Isn't she? I don't know what I'd do without
her sometimes. She's my best friend."

"Just a best friend?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Alex asked in return, not quite getting it. "Yeah of course."

"Mm-hmm." The smile was slipping out, despite Chris's best efforts to
repress it. "Sorry, didn't mean to be nosy."

"What?" Alex couldn't help a chuckle. "She took me in when I needed a
home and well, it's been really nice."

"I imagine it has." Chris's tone was just the slightest bit too bland.

In the kitchen, Lorna scolded herself for trying to eavesdrop and set
about figuring out some way to stretch what she'd planned for two
people (one and a half servings of which were for Alex) into three.
Dessert would help. If the father was as fond as the sons of
strawberry pies, she'd be in good shape--she'd picked up early berries
knowing they were Alex's favorites... The knife she was holding
slipped out of her hand as a revelation came down like a ton of
bricks. She dashed back to the living room. "We're not together,"
Lorna blurted.

Alex blinked as he looked over at her. "What? Who said we were?"

Chris just raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "I see," he said
simply. "Well, apologies for jumping to conclusions, then."

Lorna blushed, that had been badly done. "I mean, we were. But we're
not anymore. I just realized, it probably looks...but we're not. Do
you like asparagus?"

Chris looked intrigued. "I don't think I've had asparagus in years...
it's not a big menu item on the island."

With a blush still on his cheeks from the assumptions, Alex was glad for a change of subject. "Your in for a treat then. Lorna's asparagus is amazing. In fact, all of her cooking is amazing."

Lorna stood a moment longer, looking between the two Summers men then nodded and fled back to the kitchen. Alison was going to laugh so hard when she heard this story.