Time: 8:00 PM EST
Date: July 19th
Setting: Liv's determined to bring some music out of Teddy so she schedules a little jam sesh in her music store/room.

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Liv had a personal belief that music was a universal language, something that everyone understood. Whether it be country, rock, rap or electronic, some sort of rhythm tickled one person’s fancy or another. That being said, she also had a belief that there was an instrument for everyone. Those who could strum the six strings of a guitar were on the more talented side of the spectrum, and for those with little musical ability there was always something like… the triangle. When hanging out with students it was a personal mission of hers to try to evoke the musical muse and find an instrument for each and every person who set foot in her music store of a room. Teddy… Well, he was no Slash. But Liv had just the thing for him.

The cajon, or box drum, was one of Liv’s favorite instruments simply because of how easy and fun it was to play. You sit on top and beat out a rhythm just like you would on the top of your desk or your thigh. She hadn’t met a person yet who couldn’t enjoy tapping a progression of their own, so it was her first choice to throw at the kid.

“Here…” she said distractedly as she dug through the pile of music makers before finding the custom black and grey graffiti’d drum she’d picked up a few years back in Brooklyn. She slid it across the floor over to Teddy before reaching into the mess of instruments once more to pull out her beloved mandolin. The blonde hefted it in her hands, the feeling of its twelve strings beneath her calloused fingertips perfectly familiar. “Follow my lead…” she instructed with a grin as she warmed up her fingers a little along the strings, and then began to strum out a familiar tune. Liv waited for Teddy to catch on and pick up the song’s simple drumbeat before letting loose a little vocal action.

“Baby you, you got what I need,” she sang, her grin broadening as she dug into the chorus. “But you say he’s just a friend…” she continued, shaking her head as she dove into the music. Liv’s gift gave her the ability to sound however she wanted, but the true acoustics of her natural vocal instrument was unique and beautiful enough as is. She didn’t sing often, but it was something she loved to do. Just… in private. Now was a nice departure from the norm. It was a beautiful Saturday night in New York, and Liv couldn’t find a better use for her time than enjoying the company of a friend and making some sweet music.

Meanwhile, across the country in Los Angeles…

Alvaro Rodriguez had an agenda. An agenda, a gun, and most importantly a grudge. It had been three months since a gang of junkie mutants had robbed his family’s convenience store, taken the only money they had to their name and killed his mother in cold blood. Three months of hatred had burned in his heart, three months of planning had kept him awake at night, and three months of revenge had been plotted. Now, as Alvaro sat in his shit hole apartment, sweating not only from nerves but from the ungodly heat with no help from the busted air conditioner buzzing miserably in the corner, he realized his time had come. It was his time to exact his pound of flesh.

Mim Anderson started her day just like any other: With a strong cup of coffee. She had a few things on the agenda today… A sound check for her show later tonight, lunch with a guy downtown, but most importantly a commitment to a dear friend to support a cause very close to her heart. A colleague of hers had been planning a mutant pride and awareness march for the past few weeks and it was the least Mim could do to join along and show her support. She had always been a proud member of the community, playing a multitude of benefits for the cause in the past. So, when five o’clock came she was on the front lines, raising her banner high and feeding off the positivity that the crowd was giving off. It was a marvel to see… People from all walks of life and all kinds of stories filling the streets for a common, peaceful cause. It gave hope to the idea that mankind and mutantkind could coexist in harmony.

Then, all hell broke loose.

One shot rang out, silencing the masses for a fraction of a second before shrill screams sliced through the air. Then more, a flurry of bullets, hot lead cutting through the crowd. A single man, eyes wild and alight with fiery rage, unloaded solitary a clip into the crowd before he was realized and disabled by an enraged crowd of mutants. But by then, the damage was already done and the streets once filled with joy were now running red with blood.

Moments before, back in New York…

“Okay, let’s switch it up a bit,” Liv offered, her head still bobbing to the beat. She changed up the strum over the mandolin strings, cuing Teddy to do the same with his drum beat. “Bringin’ it back a little,” she began, her smile turning into a grin as she began to pick out some Rolling Stones. “You gotta know this one—“ She began before a look of sheer terror overtook her face. Liv shot to her feet, unable to make a sound. The only movement she could display was a tremor throughout her entire body as a chill ran down her spine. Then the pain… first in her shoulder, prompting her to reach in an attempt to stop the invisible assault. But, her hand barely hat time to move before a mind splitting agony found its way right between her eyes.

Liv’s eyes rolled in the back of her head, showing only their pearly whites as her knees gave out beneath her. She seemed only to sway for a moment before rather awkwardly falling downward. The corner of her nearby desk made contact just above her temple, twisting her body so that the back of her head could slam neatly into the shag rug below. A thin red line of blood tickled Liv’s cheek while she welcomed unconsciousness’s dark, fuzzy grasp. The pain in her head was nothing compared to a new, deep ache in her heart. As if a perfect half had been roughly cut from the contents of her very own soul. Her heart hacked up and ripped out. As her starry eyed vision began to fade into blackness and the sensation of pain transformed into absent numbness, one simple fact became clear to Liv. Her beloved sister was gone. Mim was dead.

It had all started two days ago, the day was early and Teddy had forgotten to close the curtains in his dorm room. Light flooded in with more than copious amounts, almost ridiculous amounts and woke Teddy. The light beat, punched and kicked, on Teddy’s eye lids as he clinched them closed in an effort to keep the little sleep he had left with him. Instead, the morning light essentially ripped his last bit of drowsiness he had left once Teddy opened his blue eyes, bloodshot and monstrous. However, that was no stab at his mutation, everyone looked like a monster once they woke up.

Going down to the game room, Teddy slung a plastic guitar over his shoulder and plopped down in front of television. Guitar Hero; enough said. While he hadn’t been a prodigy at the game he had only played it once, so it was hard to tell if he could actually be good at it. The song started off slow, Bohemian Rhapsody seemed like an easy enough song to start off with. He saw the first note coming down his trail, or whatever it was officially called. He imagined strumming it and large crowd cheering, maybe a laser light show behind him. Instead, the note came and went, Teddy, having a ridiculously slow reaction, got a dull flat tone that definitely signified missing a note.

The rest of the song was watched by Teddy with squinted eyes, the same look that would probably also be seen if Teddy had just witnessed a train crash or one of the countless American Idol auditions. Even though there were more wrong tones than right, that didn’t stop Teddy from humming the song as loud as he could… he was alone after all. As if the guitar playing wasn’t bad enough, the young blonde’s monstrous humming was the icing on the ear melting cake. It was only after the song that he heard a small snicker and turned around to see Mrs. Anderson.

The music teacher…

Currently…

Teddy sat cross legged in Liv’s room. The room was cluttered with an insane amount of instruments, well he assumed they were instruments though some were oddly shaped enough that they could be a drinking gourd… or something. She rummaged through small piles of noise makers, and pulled out a small box that Teddy assumed was for him to sit on and play another instrument. Sliding it across the floor, Teddy stopped it in front of him and craned his neck trying to figure out what exactly it was and how to attempt to play it. “Are you sure I should sit on this, I mean I weigh a lot more than you. Like a lot.” Teddy didn’t want to break Liv’s instruments, on the other hand the lesson might be over a bit early if he did.

“Follow my lead…”

The music teacher, or more accurately musician, started off and Teddy immediately filled with envy. She worked so smoothly and beautifully, it was always easy to avoid music and music studies in High School, but at this point he wished that he had learned to play at least one instrument. Half star-struck, Teddy realized that he had not been playing and jolted to attention. Teddy just started tapping on the box, he stumbled over the beat speeding up and slowing down sporadically. Finally finding what he would call his groove, though there was little connection to Liv’s playing and his own, Teddy’s shoulders shrugged slightly even though there was a small look of entertainment on Liv’s face. The mutant assumed it was because Teddy’s playing was so… bad.

Teddy sighed inwardly as Liv stopped and looked to play another song. The hulking mutant was hoping that he had found a little more groove than he had thought he had last song. Liv started playing, as smooth as she had done before, and Teddy thought to himself. She sure sounds a lot better when you aren’t playing… Teddy did know it just because of the general popularity which resulted on the song’s playing on radio stations that his mother used to listen to.

When Liv stood up in the middle of the song, Teddy wondered why. His playing was bad, but it wasn’t that bad. He had only played several hits of the drum, before the song had stopped. The blonde mutant’s eyebrows furrowed in quizzical intrigue as Liv seemed frozen. The first place his mind went was that the music teacher really interpreted her music and just let if flow through her. It was then that Teddy realized that the woman was not joking, the entire situation was not planned. The small smile that Teddy had from playing music vanished, a grave paleness arose from deep within Teddy as he almost felt sick with confusion.

Liv’s knees buckled… and falling to the floor not safely, but incredibly dangerously. Teddy’s mouth gaped open as the entire situation seemed to be moving in more than slow motion. Every movement seared into his brain the next hurting more than the last. She hit the floor and once Teddy eyed the small trail of blood coming from her mouth, he moved from his box drum. Elevating her head by placing his arm underneath, Teddy asked dangerously frantic. “Liv…. Liv?! Wake up!” Instinctually, Teddy lifted the girl up with ease, moving quickly to the door. Teddy had been yelling to anyone in the Staff Rooms since he lifted the girl hoping that someone would heed the call. Throwing the door open with Liv safely snug in his arms, the door knob left a small indent on the wood paneling behind the door. Stepping out into the hall, Teddy yelled.

“I need help!!!”

Everett sat on the edge of his bed breathing heavy and sweat dripping from his forehead. He used the towel draped around his bare shoulders to wipe it out of his eyes. About ten minutes ago he had come back inside after a couple of laps around the track. It always felt good to give his legs a real workout the old school way. The Danger Room was magnificent, but the man still loved to workout with gym equipment and run the track. He grabbed the nearly empty bottle of water from the nightstand and squirted a good amount down his throat. Mmm, so very refreshing. He took a whiff of his armpit and scrunched his nose. “Woo, time to hop in the shower.”

As he stood up, the stomach began to rumble. The funk was saying take a shower, but the stomach wanted something to eat. Before his run the only thing that he had eaten was a couple of granola bars and those things did nothing for the filling. He had no idea what was on the dinner menu for tonight having not paid a visit to the kitchen. Everett swallowed down a few more gulps of water finishing off the bottle. He picked up the little, black remote control from his pillow and flicked on the television. Hopefully something good was on or rather something positive on the news front. He was tired of being bombarded with negativity.

He sat there for a moment checking out the local news. The same ol stuff was being talked about. Not that what was going on was not important, he just wanted something uplifting to be reported. It was times like this when the people needed positivity more than ever. As he stood up and made his way to the bathroom, a scream for help stopped him in his tracks. He immediately abandoned his quest for shower and food and rushed out of his room. In the hallway Teddy stood holding a bleeding Liv in his arms. “What happened to her?” he asked while approaching. “Come on let’s get her to the medical bay.” Everett looked at the wound on her head. She must have slipped and hit it on a table corner or something.

Consciousness came in waves, reality ebbing and flowing as the world around her seemed to slip Liv’s grasp. She felt weightless, as if she were being lifted by some higher power. Glimpses of the lights that dotted the hallway faded from scenes of her past. The sand of Bondi Beach beneath her toes, the familiar call of her mother giving orders for the girls to pose for a few family album fillers. She could feel her… Mim’s presence was so vivid in the memory that Liv forgot for just a moment the reality of what had happened. That was until consciousness brought back the pain that knocked the breath from her lungs once more.

Her crystal blue eyes looked up, the image blurred by the concussion she was sure to have suffered when she clipped her head on the table. Blood burned in her right eye, casting her vision in a sheen of crimson as she tried to make out just who was carrying her. What hurt worse than the splitting pain in her head was the gut wrenching ache in her heart. Slowly but surely, the therapeutic numbing of unconsciousness found her once more. Liv didn’t want to wake up. With consciousness came the cold reminder of reality, and any sort of numbness was preferable to that.

Far away from the school’s walls and corridors were the fleeting memories once more. Her fingers were interlaced with Mim’s, raised high in the air as the two took a bow. It was their first headlined show in Sydney, and the crowd was electric. No words were shared, only two carbon copies of the same shit eating grin. Liv reached out, wrapping her arms around her sister once last time before reality kicked the door of her little fantasy open and hauled her out.

When Liv regained consciousness again she was out of the stranger’s arms and resting on a bed, but not her own. She tried to sit up, instantly regretting the idea. Wide eyes blinked frantically, trying to bring into focus the smudged world around her. She couldn’t focus… she couldn’t think. All she felt was empty, as if a chunk of her very soul was missing. There was no denying the fact that her sister was gone, but she wouldn’t believe it. Hope still lived, still thrived inside of her. It was Liv’s nature not to give up, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to give up on her own flesh and blood. Finally, after brushing the sticky crimson from her eyes, Liv could make out the location and population of her whereabouts.

Teddy… Everett… They must have been who had brought her to the med bay. Liv’s first attempt at making words was cut short by an acute wave of nausea. She hoped to overcome it and articulate some form of english to the pair, but it ended up turning out to be a frantic wave for a nearby bedpan. Trembling fingers clawed at the bedside table, finally grabbing the metal container just in time to empty the contents of her dinner. Her stomach lurched again, this time producing nothing more than a pain deep in her gut. There was no room for embarrassment… Liv simply needed answers... Comfort from the pain both physical, mental and emotional.

“I… I need…” she tried, patting down her person distractedly as she spoke. Finally, she retrieved what she was looking for in her pocket, raising the smart phone to her line of sight before finishing her thought. “I need to know what happened,” she sputtered, propping herself up as best she could as her sticky fingers tapped slowly on the touch screen’s face. It didn’t take long to find what she was looking for. The headline gave her the cold reassurance she needed: “Two dead, four wounded in downtown shooting.” Liv needn’t read any further… Liv couldn’t read any further.

The connection she had with her twin sister was something the girls always wondered about. When Mim broke her arm in the sixth grade, Liv felt the pain. When Liv got into a car accident her junior year of high school, Mim fainted the very same moment. Perhaps it was a facet of the x-gene manifesting itself in the identical twins. Either way, it provided a clear indication for the young mutant of what had happened and just who was the casualty reported. She dropped her phone, the piece of tech clattering to the ground as Liv cupped her face in her hands. Her salty tears washed some of the crimson from her digits. But washing the pain away… that would be another story.

Teddy wasn’t scared, the situation was more than what called for a scare. Instead, he was feeling amazement that was complimented by the other components of fear. It was all a surreal feeling looking down at the blonde teacher that he had seen so many times. She used to be lively and full of energy, now she was still. Dangerously still. Instead of staring at the crimson trail that trickled slowly from the edge of her mouth, he stared at the pale flawless skin. As Everett and him rushed to the medical bay of the school, a fear did began to sit in as adrenaline wore off and possibilities ran rampant through his head. The young shape-shifter had heard about instant deaths, aneurisms and stuff that just came and went. She couldn’t be dead though, she couldn’t.

As Teddy sat the light woman down on a bed of seemingly endless white linens. As Teddy carried the woman he wasn’t able to feel a heartbeat, most likely because of the rapid beat of his own masking hers. He didn’t even consider the other option. He stared intently at the young woman and saw a small rise and fall of her chest. A huge wave of relief ran over him, he half wanted to sit down up against the wall once he realized that Liv was not… well dead. Taking several steps back from the bed, he wiped a small amount of sweat from his brow. This was not present because of the fact that he had physically strained himself, instead it was because of the panic he had experienced up until this point.

“Two dead, four wounded in downtown shooting.”

Teddy looked confused, he glanced over to Everett with the puzzled look that was unsure of what Liv was talking about. Perhaps she was suffering brain damage from hitting her head on the desk when she fell. He listened, but couldn’t make out anything familiar that he might have heard from any recent news segments. Teddy’s jaw slacked and a small gap opened in his mouth as he continued to question what Liv was saying. As far as he knew, Liv was unable to see the future or see off into distant places. As if the day had not been confusing enough, Liv was rambling on about things that Teddy knew little to nothing about. Looking back to Everett he asked, “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

The individuals made it down to the medical bay where Teddy laid her body down on one of the beds. Everett stood on the opposite side and looked down at the woman. He was not a medic or doctor and had no idea what to do in this situation other than call for one of the staff nurses to come check her out. He was a fighter; the healing could be done by others. Oh good, she was back in the land of the living and trying to sit up. All he could physically see wrong with her was the head wound. “Whoa.” He stepped back quickly as she snatched up the garbage pail and tossed in her digested lunch.

Everett retrieved a few tissues from the box and handed them to her. He watched as she struggled to view the phone. There was a grim news report about a shooting somewhere. As she dropped the phone he picked it up and then looked to Teddy. “I don’t know exactly,” he thumbed through the report, “but there was a shooting in Los Angeles by some radical.” He did not know why the news would have this sort of effect on her. The door slid open and one of the nurses came into the room to check out her wound. He stepped back to give the woman room to work and then handed the phone over to Teddy.

“Liv, what’s the matter, what’s going on with you?”

Liv tried not to move, tried not to let her silent sobs shake her form as the nurse carefully numbed her wound and put in a few stitches to seal the gash. The young blonde bit her lip, working hard not to show weakness but unable to keep herself together. Once the butterfly bandage was applied and whatever blood that had flecked her face was cleaned, the nurse left the trio to themselves again. She hardly heard the boy’s questions and could barely meet their eyes when some part of her decided it was time to answer.

“My Mim… my heart…” she managed, her bright blue eyes blurred with tears as she tried to reach Everett’s own orbs. A hand moved to her chest, just below her collar bone, as if applying pressure to the wound would somehow stop the pain. Liv wiped at the tears, their salty presence stinging but helping to flush whatever flecks of blood still lingered in the corners. She swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump that had lodged itself high in her throat. “I can’t feel her anymore. She’s dead, I can feel it she’s de--“ Liv began to ramble, the idea of finally saying the words out aloud making them even more real than they’d felt before. The uncomfortably loud sound of her ringtone stopped her mid sentence.

Her forehead wrinkled and she tried to figure out where the sound was coming from, then finally realized it was in Teddy’s hands. She reached out, almost infant like, and shook her hands as if to prompt him to get a move on with handing it over. Small fingers snatched up the smart phone whose glass face was cracked and blackened in one corner from the recent drop. Luckily she was still able to pick up the call. The area code was 213… The same as Miriam’s. Liv tried to produce any semblance of “Hello” a total of three times before the words took, pushing their way past the diamond hard mass in her throat that only sobs had been able to penetrate before.

“He—Hello?”

“Good evening, Ma’am. Is this a Ms. Olivia Anderson?” A man’s voice asked, calm and controlled… almost sincere.

“Yes,” Liv choked out. She wanted to say more… to scream for answers, hope, anything. A three letter word was all she managed.

“My name is Detective James Lawler of the LAPD. I’m terribly sorry to tell you this, Miss… But tonight there was a shooting downtown. Your sister, Miriam, was one of the two killed,” He carefully said, pausing so that the words could sink in.

Silence came from the receiving end as all of Liv’s childhood fears and nightmares were confirmed. Jim continued.

“We have the shooter in custody and plenty of eye witnesses,” The words came off as some sort of condolence, “And you were the only emergency contact she had listed… Is there anyone else we should contact?”

Liv swallowed, then again, finally clearing the lump from her throat and finding her voice. It was far from what it had once been. Now her tone was blank, hollow. “I’ll take care of it. Thank you detective.”

“I’m very sorry for your loss Ms. Anderson. I will give you a call tomorrow to start talking about arrangements for you to identify the body and the funeral options,” he continued. Liv shuddered at the thought of ID’ing Mim. Not only would she have to stare her dead, lifeless sister in the face but she would have to stare at a grey carbon copy of herself. She didn’t bother to say another goodbye, just hung up the phone and slowly sat herself up in her bed. Liv sat for a moment, her forehead wrinkled as if in deep thought as she stared into her lap. No more tears fell… it was as if she were all dried up and had nothing left to give. She looked up to Teddy, then to Everett, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I’m ready to wake up now. One of you, please wake me up,” she pleaded, running a hand through her shock of blonde hair. It still didn’t feel real, even now with the raw evidence of the truth a mere plane ride away.

The nurse that was kind enough to answer the call quickly sealed up the wound on Liv’s forehead. Everett looked from her as she left the bay to the patient. He wanted to know what was going on, what brought about this strange behavior. It was not like Liv to not be in an upbeat mood. And that is when she said Mim. It took him only a second to recognize the name and who it belonged to. Mim was her sister, her twin sister. In past conversations he remembered her coming up from time to time, but did not know much about her. Everett’s already concerned face became grim as the conversation went further.

He did not want to think about her sister being dead and did not want her to think about that being a possibility either. But she said that she could no longer feel the woman’s presence and sudden black out… no. The phone ringing interrupted anything that he was about to say to her. As she picked up the phone, Everett listened slightly. He was not a fan of eavesdropping on people’s conversations, but he thought it appropriate in this situation. He could not really hear the man on the other end, but it was obvious that he had some horrible news for Liv by her reactions. Damn, this was so messed up.

Everett did not know what to say to her. He had a sister and knew that if he ever lost her it would devastate him completely. He had already almost lost her once. All he could was comfort his friend. He took her hand in his and kissed it and did not let go. He shook his head. “I wish this was a nightmare, baby girl.” Honestly he did not have the words for this situation. What did a person say to someone that had just lost a family member? “I’m… I’m here if you need anything or just someone to talk to, comfort.”

Her head swam… She needed more answers. Like who did this? Mim was the saintly twin, the one who no one in his or her right mind would ever have a problem with. She was the peacemaker, the one who calmed Liv down when she felt out of her mind. There was no way the girl could have done anything to deserve the cold grasp of death, but the unfathomable had happened nonetheless. And amidst the breathtaking pain that resided in Liv’s heart from this point on, a new sensation began to surface: Anger. Seething, boiling rage. Mim wasn’t deserving of her fate, but whoever did this to her would get what they had coming to them.

It wasn’t in her nature to hate, not in the slightest. But what used to be a good hearted and fun loving blonde was now a shell. A shell to be filled with raw emotion, and now the only two ingredients swirling in her being were pain and hate. A sensation, a touch on her hand brought Liv back to reality just in time to make out Everett’s words. She squeezed his hand, her watery blue eyes meeting his as she tried to control herself and keep the sobs from shaking her form. Her free hand struggled to push herself up, the act of sitting up straight causing a brief lightness in her head. Liv blinked a few times, clearing her head as best she could before addressing Everett.

“Th-Thank you, Ev,” she managed, trying to muster as sincere an expression as she could. It was at that moment that she finally realized how pitiful she must have looked… Tear stricken face, expression screwed up in mourning, makeup a mess. Liv had never been a pretty crier, and as she bared the pain in her soul on her face she couldn’t help but wonder how terrible she looked. At the same time, it didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered as of now. The next order of business on her grim agenda was making the long flight to L.A. to continue this surreal nightmare. Flashes of Mim plagued her mind, but not the loving smile she remembered. Her imagination couldn’t help but wonder what the pale gray, lifeless form of her sibling would look like laid out on the cold metal slab of the coroners office.

“I need… I need to pack. Go to L.A. … They need me to ID her,” Liv explained, shifting in her bed as if she were trying to escape it but couldn’t figure the way out. She used Everett’s grasp to help her swing two slender legs around to one side. After a deep breath to steady herself, Liv slipped off the edge of the bed and onto her feet. A nurse promptly scurried over, urged her to sit down but was quickly dismissed with a distracted wave of Liv’s hand. It was as if she weren’t really present in the world, instead locked away in her own mind, drowning in her thoughts. She had an agenda to complete and there wasn’t time to waste. The sooner it was over, the sooner the healing could begin.

Her eyes searched for Everett once more, bringing her again out of the realm of thought and into the world of the living. “Could you help me back to my room?” she asked, using the sleeve of her t-shirt to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Liv had to be strong now, if not for herself but for her family, for Mim. She would do her best to keep herself together but all the while the only thing she could understand was falling apart.

He helped her to sit up straight in a more comfortable position. “No thanks required. You’re a friend and I care about you.” Losing a family member, especially one as close as a sister, was a truly devastating event. When the death comes from something natural like illness then it is more acceptable and less traumatic on the heart. It did not hurt any less, but at least the mindset was not one of anger. But death at the hands of another, a gunshot, that was foul. He could imagine that she was filled with anguish and anger, he would be too. He looked into her eyes for a moment before stepping aside to let her out of the bed.

Have to ID the body… he could not imagine the pain that would surface during such an event. Having to look down on the cold face of a lover taken from the world far too soon. Thinking about the guy that shot was pissing him off. So much bullshit had been going on lately, so much ignorant racism. It was times like these that he could see how mutants would want to flock to people like Magneto. But Everett did not like giving in and giving in to the negative emotions was not his style. Even the men responsible for his sister’s kidnap kept their lives despite him having the power to kill them and then some.

“Of course.” He stepped close and place an arm around the woman’s waist so that she would be steady as they walked back to her room. “If you don’t want to be alone I can roll with you to LA. I don’t want you to be by yourself during something like this.”

Liv’s thin form clutched to Everett, her arms wrapping around his waist as they made the slow and arduous journey back to her room. His added physical strength worked to lessen her own burden, prompting her feet to pick up and her legs to move to the best of their wobbly ability. It was in Liv’s nature to do things on her own and carry her own weight. She had a weird thing about not being a bother to anyone else, which some mistook as hubris but she knew to be a fear of stepping on toes or being of imposition. Here and now though, if she didn’t lean on a friend she’d fall flat on her face.

She thought about his question for a few steps, mulling it over in her mind for a while before thinking of an answer. Her first inclination was doing it alone. Grinning and bearing it until she was back at home and in her bed where she could do her best to forget any of it happened. But better judgment soon made clear the fact that she was fairly useless on her own. It would be impossible to expect someone to go through such a trauma on her own, let alone the horrors she had ahead of her. As far as Liv knew, this was the easy part. She hadn’t been confronted with the hard evidence… It wasn’t real just yet, and it wouldn’t feel completely valid for months to come.

Clear blue eyes drifted up to Everett’s, no longer burdened with the gloss of tears but worn by their passage nonetheless. “Thank you, Ev. If it’s not too much to ask, if you’re not busy… That’d be really appreciated,” she finally managed, not wanting to inconvenience the man at all. The two continued up the elevator to Liv’s floor, making their way out into the familiar hallway. She could see the small trail of blood droplets that the wound on her crown had left, following them back to her door. Her arms dropped from around Everett’s form and back to her side, a hand moving slowly, almost numbly, to the doorknob. Liv pushed it open, wedging herself in the way as a makeshift doorstop before turning back to Everett.

“I’m going to pack, find a few flights and figure some stuff out,” she said, her eyes not looking directly at him but more lost in thought, her mind spinning around with questions of just what she would do next. Finally, her gaze met his again as her arms pulled him into a tight hug. “Thank you,” she added, the words not much more than a whisper to his close ear. This was the time to be the strong one. There wasn’t any choice in that now.

“I don’t mind. Always have time for a friend in need.” They were truly living in the worst of times it seemed like. A mutant coming under heavy fire simply for existing was not anything new, but damn it was far out of hand. Blame was being tossed around in every which direction and no one wanted to take full responsibility for their own damn actions. It was always the other person’s fault. Everett shifted his arm around her to better support the woman as she leaned against him. Before long they made it up the elevators and back to her room. He looked down briefly at the blood stains. That could be cleaned up later once she was back in her room.

Everett leaned against the doorframe as she stepped halfway inside the room. “Alright then you do that. I’ll be right down the hall if you need me.” As soon as he finished speaking she wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. For some reason it took him a bit by surprise, but he returned the hug, rubbing her back in comfort. She thanked him and he welcomed her before turning to head to his room. He looked back over his shoulder at her for a moment. The two of them had always gotten along and situations like this seemed to always bring people closer.