Things have been bad. No, that's putting it lightly. Things have been horrible. Waking up one day without his powers had been hard. The excitement his parents had at the idea that he would return home was harder. The fact that there had been terrorists who blew up a bus full of now human kids and teens because who knew why... Everything had been bad. The way Jay had been hurt and broken, the way mutants had died because they no longer had their powers, the way...
Getting called into Headmaster Summers' office hadn't been surprising. But the way the meeting had gone so far? Definitely approaching a new sort of low point since the emptiness had come to fill the places in his head that used to dance with knowledge.
"I'm sorry, what?" Because David had to have it repeated. There was no way what Scott was saying was right.
"We've decided," Cyclops said, in full uniform to boot, from the other side of the desk, "that it's in your best interest to stay at the institute, David. With the attack on the human students as well as the presence of the Sapien League and copycat serial killers going after former mutants, you're a target."
Blunt, of course. It was actually possible that Scott Summers had no heart.
"And This is the solution? No offense, but this isn't exactly the safest place on Earth, Mr. Summers. I'm support to go to school. My family..." They wanted him home. They wanted him to go to Harvard. He wasn't going to, his plans fell in a bit closer to Xavier's now. He had to be here for his friends, to support them. But some things were back on the table now.
"Your family agrees with the decision. Besides... would you really want to put them at risk?"
The words are a knife to the gut. How dare Scott talk about risk. How DARE Cyclops suggest that he didn't understand. It was just... It was just that David had no place here anymore. He wasn't a mutant. He had lost that. He had lost what made him one of these people.
"I just... I'm so useless here," David mumbled out, unable to look at Scott. not directly. "But it doesn't matter, does it? This has already been decided."
Without asking him. He was coming up on eighteen. This SHOULD have been his decision.
"I'm sorry, David."
Silver lining. Find a fucking silver lining. That was all David could do. He had to try.
"Professor Xavier always wanted to admit Human students. I just didn't... I just didn't think the first one would be me."
David barely gets the thought out before the office door snaps open and there is Professor McCoy, also fully dressed as if he was about to go out into a fight.
"Scott!" Beast says even as Scott tries to ask what's happening. "There's been another attack. Come quickly!"
His eyes catch David's, and there's a frown on Beast's feline lips.
"And David... You should come too."
The bottom of David's stomach goes out as he's on his feet and racing after Beast. Who is it this time? Nori? Josh? Or had Jay broken and thrown... No, Hank said attack. That meant something external. It meant not Jay breaking further. It's breaking David just to think about it as three sets of feet slam throgh the hallways.
He gets it the second he steps outside, because Josh's voice is still screaming. Still raised in one name. Over it there's the repetition of No from Noriko, still audible when Bishop's shouting over her. And yet it still doesn't process until you see her there, on the ground, in Nori's arms. When you see her there and Josh is still struggling against Wolverine.
"Laurie?"
It's not possible. Not her. Anyone but her. Laurie, gentle and soft and kind. The heart of the team, because the rest of them were just too crazy to be that. David bolts across the last few feet, falling to his knees at Nori's side. At....
"David, I..." Nori starts to say but the words have no meaning. They're just... They're just sounds that don't matter because Laurie's sprawled on the ground, most of her face red from blood, a bullethole between her eyes.
"No, Laurie, not you," manages to get past David's lips, the preface to the tears cutting down his cheeks and the pain eating him from the inside out. "Not you."
F - Goodbye Laurie | CW: Character Death, Referenced Hate-Crimes and Explosions, Death of Teens
Getting called into Headmaster Summers' office hadn't been surprising. But the way the meeting had gone so far? Definitely approaching a new sort of low point since the emptiness had come to fill the places in his head that used to dance with knowledge.
"I'm sorry, what?" Because David had to have it repeated. There was no way what Scott was saying was right.
"We've decided," Cyclops said, in full uniform to boot, from the other side of the desk, "that it's in your best interest to stay at the institute, David. With the attack on the human students as well as the presence of the Sapien League and copycat serial killers going after former mutants, you're a target."
Blunt, of course. It was actually possible that Scott Summers had no heart.
"And This is the solution? No offense, but this isn't exactly the safest place on Earth, Mr. Summers. I'm support to go to school. My family..." They wanted him home. They wanted him to go to Harvard. He wasn't going to, his plans fell in a bit closer to Xavier's now. He had to be here for his friends, to support them. But some things were back on the table now.
"Your family agrees with the decision. Besides... would you really want to put them at risk?"
The words are a knife to the gut. How dare Scott talk about risk. How DARE Cyclops suggest that he didn't understand. It was just... It was just that David had no place here anymore. He wasn't a mutant. He had lost that. He had lost what made him one of these people.
"I just... I'm so useless here," David mumbled out, unable to look at Scott. not directly. "But it doesn't matter, does it? This has already been decided."
Without asking him. He was coming up on eighteen. This SHOULD have been his decision.
"I'm sorry, David."
Silver lining. Find a fucking silver lining. That was all David could do. He had to try.
"Professor Xavier always wanted to admit Human students. I just didn't... I just didn't think the first one would be me."
David barely gets the thought out before the office door snaps open and there is Professor McCoy, also fully dressed as if he was about to go out into a fight.
"Scott!" Beast says even as Scott tries to ask what's happening. "There's been another attack. Come quickly!"
His eyes catch David's, and there's a frown on Beast's feline lips.
"And David... You should come too."
The bottom of David's stomach goes out as he's on his feet and racing after Beast. Who is it this time? Nori? Josh? Or had Jay broken and thrown... No, Hank said attack. That meant something external. It meant not Jay breaking further. It's breaking David just to think about it as three sets of feet slam throgh the hallways.
He gets it the second he steps outside, because Josh's voice is still screaming. Still raised in one name. Over it there's the repetition of No from Noriko, still audible when Bishop's shouting over her. And yet it still doesn't process until you see her there, on the ground, in Nori's arms. When you see her there and Josh is still struggling against Wolverine.
"Laurie?"
It's not possible. Not her. Anyone but her. Laurie, gentle and soft and kind. The heart of the team, because the rest of them were just too crazy to be that. David bolts across the last few feet, falling to his knees at Nori's side. At....
"David, I..." Nori starts to say but the words have no meaning. They're just... They're just sounds that don't matter because Laurie's sprawled on the ground, most of her face red from blood, a bullethole between her eyes.
"No, Laurie, not you," manages to get past David's lips, the preface to the tears cutting down his cheeks and the pain eating him from the inside out. "Not you."