ArchivedLogs:Meeting the Family Redux

Meeting the Family Redux
Dramatis Personae Alison, Cage, Chelsea
In Absentia	2014-01-20 Alison meets Cage's daughter. It goes better than he expects.
Location <NYC> Cage's House - East Harlem
"Ok, I know it's cheesy, but there is a ton of schoolin' you missed living underground," Luke says, emerging from his kitchen with a huge bowl of freshly popped popcorn. He's wearing black cotton PJ pants, a white t-shirt, and honest-to-god bunny slippers. His daughter got them for him, and who the hell is gonna tell him not to wear them anyway? Speaking of his daughter, Chelsea is on the couch already, wearing white PJ pants with pink and red hearts on them, and a lavendar tank top. "But we learned all about him in /school/ last week," Chelsea says, still just this side of whining, more imploring, but it's a close thing. "Why can't we just watch something else?" Luke sighs and says, "Look, it's a documentary. It's less than two hours. You gimme two hours, and I'll take you shopping downtown. Wherever you want. You can even pick something out on the big screen." He takes another deep breath and adds, "I won't even argue about what to see, ok?" Chelsea's eyes go wide as she considers the possibilities, even maybe getting her dad to sit through Frozen with her. Finally she nods, digs out a huge handful of popcorn and sits back to watch the movie. It's always when you settle in for a good movie that the phone rings. Or, in this case, the door knocks. Because there is an Alison on the other side, as looking through a peep hole will quickly confirm. The blonde is back from her impromptu vacation from the snow and cold, and her tanned skin shows that her preferred spot probably had a couple of nice beaches. Dressed in a dark blue sweater over jeans and knee-high boots, Alison is notably carrying a gift bag that sags just a tiny bit at the bottom. She knocks again, rapping just a bit harder as she leans into the door to call through it. "Luke! Are you in there?" While most teens would be ecstatic to have this home-educational moment halted by the arrival of a stranger, Chelsea is instead immediately nervous. She pulls her feet up onto the couch and looks to Luke with a questioning glance. He gets up slowly as well, setting the popcorn bowl on the coffee table. Then his face cracks into a smile when he hears the voice and he sighs with relief as he approaches the door. "It's ok," he says to Chelsea. He pulls the door open and scoops Alison into a big hug. "Ali... damn I wasn't sure when you were gettin' back." He sets the woman down again and backs up. "Come in, come in. Meet the family," he says, grinning. He makes room for her to enter and then introduces everyone. "Chelsea, this is Alison. Ali, this is Chels. I'm really glad you two finally get to meet." Chelsea's expression is still pretty unsure about all of this, but she at uncoils from her spot on the couch to stand up, though she doesn't cross the room right away for hugs or handshakes. Alison squeaks when Cage scoops her up, and she giggles as she's hugged, leaning in to press a kiss against Cage's lips before she's released. "Well, if your /phone/ was on," she teases, and then shakes her head as she enters. "I'm kidding. I /would/ have called, but I've been on the phone with my producer and my manager all morning." She smiles as Chelsea's introduced, and twines her fingers in Luke's before she heads in that direction. "Hi, Chelsea!" she chirps, light flashing around her as she holds out her hand. "Oh, gosh, you're adorable. It's so nice to finally meet you." "Um, hi," Chelsea says, openly wary of this new person in the house. Sure, she and Luke had talked about Alison, but apparently it was easier when her dad just had a girlfriend who was out of town, rather than a flesh-and-blood person in the house. Luke closes the door softly behind Alison's entrance, and turns. He raises his eyebrows at Chelsea from behind Alison's back and the girl adds, almost grudgingly "Uh, nice to meet you too." Her eyes do flick to the minor light show though, curiosity just beginning to pierce the prickly barrier, but she's still just standing there awkwardly. Luke breaks the silence with, "I just turned off the coffee maker but it's probably still warm. We literally /just/ sat down to watch 'Freedom on My Mind', but I think that can wait." Luke grins in spite of himself at Chelsea's relieved expression. Maybe the stranger's arrival isn't as terrible as she thought initially. Alison doesn't seem all that bothered by Chelsea's reluctance, actually swinging the gift bag in the girl's direction. "I know it smacks of neediness, but I got you a present," she says to the girl, amping up the wattage of her smile. "I feel like I know you so well from your dad's phone calls, and I feel terrible that I wasn't around to give you a proper Christmas present." Ali /might/ be babbling a bit in her own nervousness. "So, I got my -- Anton," she amends, looking over her shoulder at Cage and offering a smile that doesn't quite match up with the anxiety in her eyes. "I asked him to find something awesome that you'd enjoy." Inside the bag is a DS XL, and a couple of platformer games for it, a reveal that Alison watches anxiously until Cage speaks. Then she turns around, and nods. "Coffee sounds good," she agrees, and frowns slightly. "Um. I don't want to intrude on father-daughter time, though. Do you mind if I stay?" she asks, turning back to Chelsea. "It's okay if you do. We can get a pizza or something another time." The question of Alison staying or not seems to be the final straw in Chelsea's reticence. 'Accepting visitor' == 'don't have to watch boring old documentaries'. "Oh um, I think it's ok," she blurts out, looking from the gift bag to her dad for final confirmation. "Oh good god," he says, "I have to learn how to say 'no' to that face. At least before you get to high school. I have no willpower against that." He chuckles and nods at Alison, waving her into the kitchen with him while the coffee maker rewarms. Out in the living room is an audible, "Whoa!" with the ripping and crumpling of paper. Chelsea immediately sets about getting the chrome game platform plugged in and turned on to start checking out the possibilities. Back in the kitchen, Luke leans back against the counter and says quietly, "I really missed you, you know." "Good luck," Alison says wryly at Luke's capitulation. "I have a feeling you're going to be a big old pretzel before she's done with you." She offers Chelsea a conspiratorial wink, and drifts towards the kitchen with a cheery. "Give him hell, girl." She giggles as she hears the reaction from the other room, and goes about fetching a cup for coffee from one of the cabinets. When Cage speaks, she spins, and leans back on the counter, lifting her chin at the big man. "Talk's cheap, Mister," she says, just as quietly. "Why don't you /show/ me how much you missed me?" Luke's eyes slide to the direction of the obscured living room. There's no direct line of sight, but his expression is pretty clearly 'worried about getting caught'. He hesitates just a moment and then steps to Alison, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his lips to hers for a long kiss, a kiss that probably would have wound up being more if his daughter wasn't in the other room. The bleeps and bloops from her new device make it clear they'll have at least some minor early warning system. When they pull away to breathe, voice still practically a whisper, he says, "I was starting to think maybe this whole trip was just 'phase one' of letting me down easy." He shrugs, but doesn't let go of her waist. Alison is less worried about possible interruption, and she folds her arms around Cage's neck when he leans in. She hums a pleased sort of sound into the kiss before it deepens, and when it finally breaks, she inhales in an almost-gasp. "Mmm. That's better,' she murmurs, and scrunches her nose at Cage's expressed concern. "Oh, gosh. I wouldn't do that to you," she says. "I would /totally/ have Mel take you someplace nice and let you down easy." She /might/ be teasing, but it's a little hard to tell, as she twinkles in residual pleasure. "He's amazingly empathetic for those kinds of things." She nestles in closer to the big man, turning her head to rest it on his chest thoughtfully. "But. There is something I want to discuss with you." Luke rolls his eyes at her joke about Mel and runs a hand over his bald head, actually a little scruffy from not being shaved today, and it /looks/ like there might be some gray coming in, because it sure stands out against his dark skin. While she teases, he puts the mug she picked out under the spout for the pod-style coffee maker, and presses 'go'. But when she makes her announcement about discussions, his eyes widen some, and he whispers, "Oh shit, you're pregnant..." "What?!" Alison's eyes widen at Cage's surmisal, and she steps back as if he suddenly produced a flamethrower. "I am /not/ pregnant," she says a bit archly, raising an eyebrow. "And if I were, I would pick a better time to tell you than thirty seconds after I met your long-lost daughter." Speaking of which...Alison drifts back to the kitchen door and peeks out to verify that Chelsea is, in fact, absorbed in Mario or Link or whatever she's plugged in. Once that's verified, she drifts back and furrows her brow. "What I wanted to talk to you about was something a little more immediate, anyway." She drifts back to the counter, and leans on it, watching the coffee-maker as it spits hot coffee into the mug. Chewing her lip a bit, she casts big eyes up at Cage, watching his reaction as she continues. "I'm thinking of coming out publicly," she confesses. "As a mutant. After watching everything that's gone on with Jax and that other young man...I feel disloyal, somehow." Luke's sigh of relief is so great he completely ignores Alison's admonishment, and he sinks down into a chair at the kitchen table. He nods along until Alison reveals what she really meant, and he's on his feet again. He takes her free hand and stands close. "Oh wow... that's a big deal. Have you-" Luke is cut off by an exclamation of "/Puta/," from the living room. He snaps off a quick, "/Chelsea/." Which is replied by, "Shit, I mean... {sorry}." Chelsea speaks Spanish like someone who grew up on it. Luke is glad they're in the other room because he doesn't have to hide his grin. He returns to the gravity of the situation though, and shakes his head. "{I'm sorry,} about that. I don't think you ever needed to feel disloyal. Guilt plays tricks with you head. But if you feel like it's the right thing to do, I'm behind you all the way. Whatever you need, I'm there." Alison giggles as she recognizes the teenage frustration, and the reaction it garners from the new parent. She waves off Cage's apology, pulling out the coffee cup when the machine beeps. "You should hear some of the language Anton uses," she says, waggling her fingers in the air. "I swear the boy came to me via the Merchant Marines." She retrieves milk from the fridge, adding a couple of drops to her cup. "I don't think it's just guilt," she says. "I've been thinking about it since the day you appeared on the show. How brave you were for even /doing/ that, and I was still hiding behind this public persona." Sugar is located and a couple of spoons added before she continues. "Jax is a friend of mine, and I am a public figure with a built-in audience. There's no excuse for me sitting in neutral when I can reach so many people." She smiles when Luke indicates his fidelity in the matter, and moves to perch on his knee, reaching up to stroke her fingers across that grey-speckled fuzz on his head. "That's all I need," she murmurs, her smile small and warm. "That, and probably a second bodyguard for a couple of weeks." Luke chuckles and nods about the cussing, then listens intently to her thought process about everything coming up. "No, I know how you feel, but I wouldn't say I did anything brave. I never had the chance to be subtle about my ability. Or never /took/ the chance, I guess. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I'd figured out my ability quietly." He nods when she mentions Jax too, adding, "Yeah I've met him. That family has been through so much shit... I can't even imagine. For what it's worth though, I admire what you're doing." His eyes narrow when she mentions needing a second body guard. "And what am I? Chopped liver, that I can't fill that job? I'm a bodyguard /for hire/, remember? Or actually, 'non-profit' now, but still. This qualifies." He grins, and wraps an arm around her waist to pull her close while she sits on his thigh. "You've met Jax?" Alison seems surprised by that revelation, and her eyebrows hike as she sips her coffee. "He's so sweet; I just love him and his boys. I haven't met his husband, yet, though." She scrunches up her nose thoughtfully. "Which is understandable, of course." She laughs at Cage's mock offense, and stifles a squeal as she's pulled closer. She shifts her weight as she settles into the solid curve of his chest. "I was hoping you'd volunteer," she says. "Good security is so hard to find, these days. And you come with all these..." she presses a kiss to the line of Luke's jaw. "Perks." "Yeah, it's kinda complicated, Jax and me. I'll explain another time." He nods at her acceptance of his assistance and says, "Because damn, girl, /some/one's gotta guard that body-" "Seriously?" comes the exasperated teenager's voice from the entrance to the kitchen. "I leave you alone for like... /two/ minutes." Chelsea rolls her eyes, clearly having more fun playing at exasperation than actually being annoyed. She has the DS in one hand, and crosses to the kitchen to get the orange juice out. She's about about to drink right out of the carton when her dad clears his throat and she shrugs. "What? I was getting a glass..." No, she wasn't, but she is now. Luke chuckles but doesn't make any effort to move Alison off his knee. "Whadja get, anyway? I haven't played any games since the first Playstation." Chelsea focuses on getting all the juice into the glass and then speak while putting it away again, "Oh, I been playing Mario Cart. It's fuc- Uh, it's crazy." Luke's eyebrow goes up at the near-miss, but doesn't comment on that. "Oh yeah, that was around when I was your age. Probably an updated version or something though, right?" Chelsea shrugs, trying to figure out if she can play /and/ hold a glass of orange juice. Alison giggles at Chelsea's exasperation, and she lifts a shoulder with a small toss of her head. "You'd better get used to it," she cautions. "We are all about the PDA around here." She sips her coffee as she listens to the conversation between father and daughter, and she nods at the girl's choice of game. "Anton loves that game," she says. "We have it for his DS and on the system at home. Which reminds me," she says, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a business card with twelve numbers on the back that she offers to the teenager. "Anton asked me to give you this. It's his friend code?" She shakes her head a bit helplessly. "He said you'd probably want someone to race against, sometime, and he /loves/ that game." She leans back against Luke, then, and sips at her coffee. "Your dad says that you're going to Xavier's," she says, lifting her eyebrows. "I graduated from there, you know." Chelsea scrunches up her face with an affected 'gross' expression at Alison's insistence about the PDA, but she's mainly focused on the current race, and even sets down the orange juice to focus better, just, standing there in the kitchen, totally absorbed. She sticks one hip out, and the tip of her tongue when she concentrates, and actually turns the device quite a bit back and forth as she struggles for the win. But when Alison mentions Xavier's, she actually pauses the game and looks up to take the card, and a seat at the kitchen table. "Whoa, really? How long ago?" It's clear from her expression that she expects Alison to have graduated in the dark ages, neverminding the fact that her father is only in his early thirties, and Alison certainly /looks/ younger than he does. Luke just chuckles, lifts Alison by the hips with no more effort than one might move the cat to clean something, and moves to make himself a cup of coffee as well. Apparently Alison is one-on-one with the Chelsea now. VERSUS! "Class of '99," Alison says with a nod. "If you look at the class photo, I'm right up front; next to a boy with striking green eyes who was, in fact, a total douchebag." She gives Luke a guilty look as she's moved, but she settles in as if Luke had done nothing more than shift her chair as he went by. She leans forward, putting her elbows on the table. "Are you liking the school, so far? It's a great place to go to school. The Professor..." she smiles, and lifts her shoulder. "You know what I mean, I'm sure." "Oh yeah? Wow..." Apparently Chelsea finds the concept of 1999 to in fact be a very long time ago. Before she was /born/ even. She fires up the browser on the DS, moving it along fairly expertly already. Her eyes go wide when she finds the picture, and she turns it around for Alison and Luke to see. "Really? Is that you there?" Chelsea seems quite amused. Luke comes back to look over Alison's shoulder at the screen, squeezing her shoulder in a teasing way when he spies her picture. "Wow," he says. "You look so /young/." Then the coffee dings, and it's his turn to retrieve a cup. He does so, and proceeds to add /way/ more sugar and milk than could possibly be healthy for anyone, really, and sips at it looking pleased with himself. "Yes, that's me," Alison says, leaning over and nodding at the photo. She smiles up at Luke when he squeezes her shoulder, and there's a glimmer of pink in the air around her that matches the pink in her cheeks. "Oh, gosh. That was a long time ago, wasn't it?" She looks over the picture, her smile turning a bit ruminative. "A couple of these kids are teachers at the school now," she informs Chelsea after a moment. "But I'll leave it to you to figure out who they are." She sits back, then, and takes a long sip of her coffee, flicking her gaze from Chelsea to Luke, who gets a furrow of her eyebrows. "What's got you looking so smug, Mister?" "I'm just glad you two are getting along so well," Luke says. He sips at his coffee and moves to squeeze Chelsea's shoulder as well. "But it's almost lunch time at this point, actually. Why don't you two go out to the living room, and I'll get started on the sandwiches. Roast beef ok, Ali? I got this great cut of meat the other day. Been waiting for a day to make sandwiches." “/Men/,” Alison says, rolling her eyes in Chelsea's direction. “They just assume women won't like each other.” She pushes to her feet, nodding at the sandwich choice. “Roast beef is fine,” she says, nudging Chelsea from her chair and steering her towards the living room. “C'mon, Chelsea. You can catch me up on the school gossip while your dad makes lunch.” She throws a wicked grin over her shoulder. “And I'll tell you /all/ the most embarrassing things about your dad I can think of.”