Issue 1 Downtime

After being released from the bunker, Theresa had taken a few moments to look outside and then had retreated to her room. She had one last box tucked in a corner that she hadn't unpacked. She'd been reluctant to do it, but she needed it now. Once the box was open, she pulled out a raggedy old teddy bear around two-and-a-half feet tall and smoothed out its fur before hugging it tightly. She sat down at her desk with the teddy bear in her lap and dashed off a quick "I'm fine" e-mail to her parents and then parked herself on her bedroom floor, leaning back against her bed and looking at the sky out her window.

((Open))

After some wandering around aimlessly and being unable to find the people who had joined the big battle (they were fine, she's sure, they had to be) Kay finds her way back to the dorm and spots Theresa through the open door.

"Hey..." she says weakly.

"Hey," Theresa said. "How're you doing?"

"Dunno... I was looking for Brigid but I couldn't find her..."

"I'm sure she's fine," Theresa said. "We can be pissed with her if we find out she's not." Theresa smiled, but she seemed to hug the bear tighter at the thought that Brigid might not be okay.

"I'd just hoped I could find the people who went out there. And I was too big a chicken to check the infirmary..." she says, stepping into the room and sitting down next to Theresa.

"At least you left the dorm. I haven't even done that."

"Not really. I just didn't know where to go. Outside it's... still all messed up..."

"Yeah, I looked through the windows. Dead grass and stuff. It's kind of creepy and I normally like creepy, but this is different."

"Yeah. I heard someone died out there... One of the X-Men..."

"Yeah, I heard that too. I can't imagine what that must be like for the rest of them."

"Yeah... And I felt even worse when I heard it was one of them and I was relieved it wasn't... you know..."

"That's normal," Theresa said. "Just gotta be mad at the jerks who decided to start the fight in the first place."

"I guess. I can't really manage to get mad right now though. I just feel kinda..." she shrugs a bit helplessly.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Theresa said, picking at one of the teddy bear's ears.

"At least everything's good now. I think."

"We're not in the bunker anymore which is a plus."

"That was bad, yeah... Not knowing what's going was much more scary than what did happen, I bet."

"Watching Colin keep the younger kids attention was at least amusing though," Theresa said with a giggle. "He's such a dork."

"Little bit, yeah." she smiles faintly. "Kept them distracted for sure though."

There was a sound of a door opening at the entrance to the suite.

Theresa leaned back and looked out towards the main door. "Maybe that's Brigid now."

"Hey," Brigid said softly as she approached where they were.

"They made us all go into the infirmary to get checked out. Just in case. I have to go to the security office tomorrow morning, because they're mad at us."

"Brigid!" she jumps up. "Are you okay?"

"Answer her first," Theresa said, standing up. "And then tell us why they're mad at you."

"I'm fine, don't worry. They're mad at us for getting into the big fight."

"Damn right they are. I'm mad at you for that too!"

"I would be mad if I didn't sort of envy you," Theresa said.

"Look, I'm sorry! I just... I couldn't stay behind."

"It was dangerous! Someone died!"

"Well, either way," Theresa said, setting her bear aside and hugging Brigid. "You're here and you're safe."

"Yeah, I'm... I'm sorry I worried you guys," she said as she hugged Theresa back.

"It's just... you don't let someone do that to your home, you know?"

"Well... no... And I guess you are kinda perfect for something like that, what with the dinosaur wrestling and all..." she manages a slight smile.

Theresa giggled at 'dinosaur wrestling.' "Sounds like someone's trying to take my 'brat' title away from me."

"You can share it," she laughed wearily.

"And I'm not gonna say we weren't in over our heads, out there."

"At least it's over now."

"Yes, thankfully. Now if we only had some ice cream."

"I don't think they're gonna be letting us off campus for a bit. Me longer than you guys, probably."

"That'd be so unfair. I mean it was stupid dangerous but you did help..."

"Probably because they don't want to encourage it, or something like that. You know the sorts of things adults tell themselves to make themselves feel better about punishing us."