The X-Project

 Amanda takes a wandering Adrienne in for the night and alleviates some of her fears over being accepted back by her friends.




Exhausted and sort of drunk, Adrienne wandered midtown Manhattan in a daze, having asked Emma's driver to drop her off in Times Square. After all Emma had done and was doing for her, Adrienne couldn't bring herself to accept the offer of a place to sleep, so she was wandering. Her conversation with Emma had relieved her of the great burden she'd been carrying for over a year, and now that it was gone she found herself quite at a loss as to what to do next, or how to act without it. To not have Wyngarde's threats hanging over her was a fantastic feeling, and while all of her problems were far from being solved, the one that had been eating away at her the most was gone. Her friends and students were safe. She could deal with everything else.

She considered returning to the mansion immediately. Her company was lost to her for now, and yet rather than being upset about it- there would be time for that later, she was sure- she was more interested presently in begging Charles Xavier for her job as a teacher back. She knew Bobby had taken over math from her, but she'd heard that Sam had gone to Muir to help Jay, so history might still be vacant, and Adrienne had been taking courses online out of boredom while in Boston because she thought a greater knowledge of history would help her understand her powers better. How convenient that she was close to her qualification and that Xavier's was, as far as she knew, lacking a history teacher.

And yet it was very late and Adrienne didn't quite feel up to asking for an audience with Xavier tonight, preferring to leave that meeting for the light of day, especially after Emma's warning to be more aware around the mansion. She was not in a very aware state right now.

Besides, there was someone she was dying to see, someone who would possibly still have some of Adrienne's clothes stashed at her place so she could get out of her Hellfire Club party dress, and if she didn't hate Adrienne for what she'd done, would possibly offer her somewhere to sleep. It was for this reason that Adrienne had declined Emma's offer.


Except Vanessa didn't answer her phone. Adrienne frowned at the device in her hand, but chalked it up to an out-of-town job.

She'd been wandering somewhat purposefully, she realized as she put the phone back in her pocket and took in her surroundings. She hadn't been heading for District X, where she'd learned while in Boston that Vanessa was living, but towards the Brownstone. Maybe her subconscious had been guiding her towards a different friend, one whom she felt would understand why she'd done what she'd done, perhaps even better than Vanessa would. Vanessa was confrontational, and Adrienne wasn't certain Vanessa would approve of Adrienne running away to try and protect people rather than dealing with Wyngarde immediately. But maybe Amanda would understand her need to lay low and bide her time. And also, Amanda believed in not giving up on people no matter what. So maybe she'd give Adrienne another chance.

Huffing out a nervous breath when she'd reached the familiar building, Adrienne pressed the intercom button for Amanda's apartment, hoping she wasn't on some out-of-town job, too.

There was a pause and then the witch's voice, sounding surprisingly wide-awake considering the hour. Or maybe it wasn't such a surprise - everyone knew the Trenchcoats kept odd hours, and Amanda was no different.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Amanda? It's... Adrienne. Adrienne Frost. I, um... I wasn't really sure where else I could go, so I seem to be here," she murmured sheepishly, now feeling like maybe this wasn't such a good idea when she actually connected with someone.

"Adri?" There was another pause, then a click as the door was opened. "Come on up. You remember the way, right?"

"I... umm, yeah. Thanks." Adrienne pushed the door open, but then stood in the hall for a moment, debating whether or not she really wanted to do this. She knew that Wyngarde would abide by Court protocols and leave her and her friends alone now, lest Emma enact retribution on the Black Court, so it wasn't that she was afraid for her friends anymore. Now she was just afraid that Amanda would disapprove of her.

But even if she did, Adrienne had to face the music. Even if no one understood why she felt she'd had to do what she did. If she wasn't willing to suffer some disapproval before she could regain her old life, why had she wanted it back so badly?

So she made her way slowly up the stairs and to Amanda's apartment, smiling to herself as she walked past the other suites, thinking to herself of their owners and past owners and the memories she had of them. The smile was still in place when she knocked on Amanda's door. No matter her reception, she told herself, it was good to be back.

The witch opened the door, raising her eyebrow at the figure on her doorstep. "Look what the cat dragged in," she said, stepping aside to let Adrienne come in. Her tone was neutral, although there was a spark of curiosity in her eyes. There was definitely a story here.

"There was a fire," Adrienne answered, not bothering to debate the fact that she looked awful. She'd showered and Emma had dry-cleaned her dress, but she still felt like she'd been through a fire, and guessed she still looked like it too. She decided there was no point in sidestepping anything, so she just launched into it. "Garrison and a team of FBI and DEA agents were searching a pharmaceutical plant that the Black Court arranged to be set on fire. The X-Men got everyone out without serious injury, though," she added quickly.


"'S what the leathers do - save the day." Amanda nodded, having seen something on the late night news bulletins about a fire. She waved Adrienne over to a chair. "You want a cuppa or something?"

Mostly she wanted somewhere to sleep, but now that she thought about it, Adrienne wasn't sure when her last meal had been (cognac didn't count as a meal, did it?) and tea was supposed to be what, restorative and calming? She could use some of that right now. "That would be lovely, thanks." She sat down and found herself staring at the floor, not sure what else to say or how to start saying it.


Amanda let her sit, going into the kitchen and making the tea. The situation was weird enough that she wanted to think about what she was going to say before she said it, to try and work out the jumble of feelings seeing the other woman evoked. Unfortunately, even with waiting for the kettle to boil, making tea only took so long, and before she had really sorted her head out, she was done.

"Here," she said, offering the mug to the other woman. When it was taken, she curled herself up into the couch opposite. "So. Here you are."

Amanda's return had actually jostled Adrienne out of a doze, and she blinked rapidly at the tea in her hands as she tried to wake herself up again. "I can go if you don't want me here," she said in response to Amanda's statement. "You're not in any danger with me being here though, I promise you that. You look really great, by the way," she added in something akin to her usual tone.

"I wouldn't have let you in if I didn't want you here," Amanda replied levelly. "And I figure with the building full of spies, we'll be safe enough. 'M just surprised, is all. All this time, not a word except for that restraining order bollocks with Gar, and here you are again, even tho' you made it pretty clear you were gone." She cocked an eyebrow at the other woman. "If I had to guess, you were running from something when you left and now whatever it is, it's done. Hot or cold?"

"Umm, you're on fire," Adrienne answered, sipping at her tea. "The fucking Black Court was holding me hostage, making me work for them. They said they'd kill Garrison, or my students, or my friends if I didn't comply. I didn't know what else to do, so I just left. Now that Emma's found out, she's going to tell the Black Court that I'm a member of the White, so they can't touch me or anyone in my life anymore."

Amanda only barely managed to bite her tongue on the "told you so" that sprang to her lips at the mention of the Hellfire Club. "I knew it," she said, perhaps a touch smugly. "It was the only thing that made any bloody sense with you leaving the way you did." She shook her head. "And it didn't occur to you to ask for help from your scary spy mates? We could have done something."

Adrienne sighed, letting the cup of tea warm her hands. "Of course it occurred to me." She sounded defeated, sad. "I wanted to come to you and ask the Trenchcoats for help, I wanted to go to Garrison and ask the FBI, hell, I even wanted to tell Vanessa and get one of her mercenary friends to kill Wyngarde, and you'd think I would have learned the lesson about that from the last time! But... I was scared. Wyngarde terrifies me, more than anyone else ever has," she confessed, huffing out another sigh. "He's so powerful. He's so well-connected. And I couldn't risk him hurting someone if I got one of you involved."

The witch watched the other woman as she spoke, face unreadable. Then:

"Fair enough. You need a place to kip for a while?"

Adrienne's head snapped up to meet Amanda's eyes for the first time, shocked at the response, and a sob escaped her before she could stop it. "That would be great, yeah. Thanks." She swiped at her suddenly leaky eyes with the back of a hand, leaving a sooty trail. "I... I'm going to beg Xavier for my job back, but I... I couldn't go there tonight. I can't go to my penthouse, and I don't even have money for a hotel. Wyngarde arranged for all my accounts to be frozen, and the company's under investigation for some shit he concocted." She gave Amanda a watery laugh. "And yet I'm just so damn happy, cuz you're not kicking me out. Thank you."

Amanda smiled, somewhat wryly. "Of course I'm not kicking you out. I'd be a huge bloody hypocrite if I did and while I'm a lot of things, 'm not that." She fished a box of tissues out from under the coffee table - a requisite for her training with Nico, given the tendency towards nosebleeds - and held them out to her friend. "I went and did the same thing - for pretty much the same bloody reasons - back when I was a kid at the school. Nearly got meself and Angelo killed. But they forgave me, let me come back, even tho' I'd been a right twit." She shrugged. "Sometimes it's how things have to go, before we know what we actually have. But all that aside, you're a mate, and you help your mates out." Her expression turned sheepish. "As long as you don't mind the couch for now - Angie's laid claim to the spare room."

"Why's Marie-Ange in your spare room? Is Doug out of town? I don't mind the couch," Adrienne assured her as she wiped at her eyes with the offered tissues, unable to get rid of the stupid grin on her face. "If they forgive me and let me come back like they did you, even though I've been a right twit, maybe I'll be out of your hair and back at the mansion by tomorrow." That thought made her smile even wider. "I guess hearing that they forgave you and let you come back is kind of encouraging. It's more than I can hope for with Garrison, after that 'restraining order bollocks', as you put it, but if everyone else forgives me and lets me come back, I'll be pretty damn happy."

"It's a long story - short version is, Angie and Doug are split up, have been for a while. He's dating Jubes now." Amanda couldn't resist adding the last to mess with Adrienne's head. "As for Gar... well, yeah, that's going to be a right mess to clean up. He was pretty cut up when you left. He's been doing the whole "I'm a magnet for crazy and I'll never date again" thing pretty much since."

"Funny, I used to sing in that choir," Adrienne muttered ruefully, sipping at her tea. She set her jaw and sighed again, but this time spoke with conviction. "It's definitely going to be a fucking mess to clean up, but I'm going to do everything that I can to clean it up." And as horrible as it made her feel, the fact that she'd made him do the 'I'll never date again' thing did give her a small amount of hope- at least he wasn't seeing someone else? "I mean, I left because I'm in love with the guy and I wanted to protect him to the point that I'd rather be alone and miserable without him than see him hurt, so it's not like I'm not going to try to fix things now that I'm back." Wait, had she just said she loved him? Where the hell had that come from?! "Be friends again, I mean. I want to fix things so we can be friends. Because we were friends. Shit." She stared at the teacup, wishing she could drown herself in it. "Doug and Jubilee... really? That's... wow. Let's talk about that some more."

"Still having trouble admitting you've got it bad for our very own Mountie, I see," Amanda observed with another of her slightly wicked grins. "And yeah, it'll be hard. But if you're serious about fixing things, even on a mate level, you'll do it. And Gar will probably piss and moan and sulk a bit, 'cause he's a big baby sometimes, but he'll listen if you're honest with him." Her words of wisdom having been imparted, she leaned back against the couch, relaxing. "Yeah, Doug and Jubes. She was one of his go-to girls during his whole attempt at sleeping with the female population of New York last year, and it sort of kept going, even after he got his head back on straight. 'S weird, but it actually works."


"I'm definitely serious about fixing things with Kane. What I've kept telling myself all this time is I'd rather have him in my life and hating me than not in it at all. It's stupid, but even when I think of him hating me, I still feel like he's making me a better person. Because I know he should hate me," she shrugged. "What I did was awful, and wrong, even if I feel like I did it for the right reason. Add in the fact that he never wanted me mixed up with the Hellfire Club to begin with and he's completely justified in pissing and moaning and sulking. But I'm going to try and prove to him that he was right all along, and hopefully win back his friendship. I'm not really in the Hellfire Club anymore. Emma's just telling Shaw I am to keep Wyngarde away. I don't want anything to do with it anymore. So maybe that's a starting point to fixing things." She shrugged and sipped at her tea. "And it is weird," she agreed, "if only because I can't see Doug going through an attempt to sleep with the female population of New York. But if it works, it works. That must be hard on Marie-Ange though," she mused.

"Sounds like you're on the right track, at least, then. No more words of wisdom from me." Amanda's tone was approving - she liked Kane and she'd be happy to see him stop blaming himself for Adrienne's departure. "As for Angie... well, things have changed. A lot of 'em. S' gunna take a while to catch you up." She tilted her head at her guest. "And you could probably do with some food before we get into it."


"Food would be fantastic," Adrienne grinned, and then suddenly remembered she had no way to pay for it. Her first phone call tomorrow morning had to be to her lawyer. She had to get that restraining order lifted, and figure out just how bad the situation was regarding her accounts and the exact terms and conditions of this investigation Wyngarde had arranged for. "Oh... actually, I'm not that hungry. Shouldn't eat right before bed anyway, right?"


Amanda made a note of the hasty retraction frowned "Whatever, Adri. Pass me the phone and I'll order something." she instructed in that deceptively good-natured tone she had that actually meant "do as I say or I'll get the cane".