icon_uk

By Icon UK

Characters – Doug Ramsey/Kitty Pryde

One of the worst moments after his… well, “return” wasn’t really apt, but the English language hadn’t yet devised a word for what had happened to him without using terms associated with religious icons, was when Doug discovered what Kitty wasn’t there any more.

The horrible irony of having managed to come back from the dead, only you find one of your best friends had apparently died in deep space in the meantime was not lost on him.

He still hadn’t contacted his parents yet, and Rahne was a whole different issue, but had hoped that Kitty Pryde, the original other half of the original “Team Supreme” would be there to talk things through with him as they had always been there for each other. He knew she’d stayed in touch with his parents via Christmas cards and the like. Well, she had up until her own… departure.

Now Kitty was back, though stuck in phased form and apparently unable to speak. Which left him the slight issue of what to say. What DO you say to someone who you last saw shortly before you died? Even Hallmark didn’t have a card for that… or did they? He resolved to check it out. The X-Men could have made that a profitable sideline all by themselves.

He ran through some possibilities. He could say something in Shi’Ar… (She liked Shi’Ar, had always said it sounded like birdsong, but had she ever learned it herself?) Hebrew? (She could speak that, but as he was about as Jewish as a pork sausage it might be seen as tacky, or trying too hard to impress). He couldn’t, as he had with Amara, devise a private language for the two of them, since he hadn’t spoken to her yet, and even his somewhat amplified powers needed more than that to work with.

Okay then English it was. (The fact he was relieved by such a simple decision told him how stressed he was about this)

And what should his approach be? Play it cool, just casually walk in as if nothing had happened since the last time he’d seen her, years before. He could feel himself rocking backwards and forwards on his heels just waiting, so doubted his body language would sell that for any length of time. Plus there was the whole “Douglock” thing to get over between them. It hadn’t been Warlock’s fault Lord knows, he hadn’t known, but it would certainly put an odd spin on things between the two of them…

He didn’t want to seem TOO eager either, that would put them both in a very weird place.

The door to the Med Lab opened and he caught his first sight of her. She was floating in some sort of huge aquarium-like tank (his inner geek made a connection to Luke Skywalker in the bacta tank, but she was, thankfully, wearing more clothing) drifting in mid air with her eyes closed. He could tell she wasn’t in REM, but was just relaxing.

Well, that sort of sorted out the problem of his entrance. He walked through the doors before they could shut. He HAD to make first contact now (He made a mental note that he still had to watch that movie. It’s be nice to see Picard and the crew again, but the Borg always gave Warlock nightmares, so maybe not on their usual movie night)

Kitty’s eyes opened as if she were coming out of a doze. She caught sight of him and her eyes widened in shock.

He couldn’t think what else to do, his mouth went dry and his brain emptied. He reacted purely on impulse; He gave her a little wave.

Her expression didn’t change, but she gave a little wave back.

He pointed towards himself, and gave her the thumbs-up. He pointed towards her, gave a querying look, made the thumbs-up again, then thumbs-down, and then a little hand wiggling “so-so” gesture as an alternative option.

She made a face as she thought it over then gave the thumbs-up back.

He grinned.

She smiled.

What more needed to be said?