Ties

Most people just call him Cable.

Cable had spent the last two hours in his room, meditating. He'd been feeling uneasy as of late, out of sorts and uncomfortable. The meditation had helped to calm him, but as he headed for the kitchen to get something to drink, he could hear the source of his anxiety laughing from the other side of the door.

"-and he did it! He actually did it!"

Storm now had tears in her eyes from laughing at the story Remy LeBeau, often known as Gambit, had just told her. The two X-Men were sitting across the table from each other.

"Remy, that could not have happened!" She said wiping the tears away.

"I'm tellin' you Chere. I was dere, I saw it!"

She shook her head, giggling to herself. She now noticed, Cable standing in the doorway.

"Hello, Nathan."

"Hi." he said plainly and moved towards the fridge. He motioned a hello to Gambit, and Remy raised the beer in his hand in the same gesture.

There was a silence then, broken only by the occasional tapping of Gambit's chair against the floor. He looked at his watch suddenly. "Merde!" He stood. "Gotta be meetin' someone downtown 'bout five minutes ago."

He moved around the table towards Storm. "Do I want to know?" She asked, still sitting.

"Nope." He kissed Storm on her forehead. "Later Stormy.... Nate."

"Take care my friend." She called after him.

"Here." Cable handed Storm a wet dishtowel. "For your face."

"Thank you." She accepted the cloth and smiled to herself. Storm didn't really need it. By placing her face in her hands, she could have easily rain-washed and wind-dried the tear marks away. None the less, she appreciated the thought. Over the past months, she had grown very close to this man. Since he had helped her with Mikal Petrovich and Gene Nation in the Morlock tunnels, they had begun spending more and more time together. His friendship had been important to her after her break up with Forge, although they never actually talked about it. Cable had become very important to her, and over the last few weeks she had began to wonder if her feelings for him were leaning towards more than just friendship.

"I don't think I've ever heard you laugh like that."

"It has been an age since I have had reason, what with all that has happened in recently. I can always count on Remy to make me laugh when I need it most.

"Mmm." Cable sat backwards on a chair across from Ororo, a glass of water in his hand. "What's the real deal with you two anyway?" he asked trying to sound as casual as possible. "You seem to be more than just friends."

"Well. . . we are." She began. "I mean, I love Remy." She took a sip of her own drink. Cable suddenly felt very cold.

Storm continued. "He could no more be my brother if we were of the same blood. We are family. I see the side of him that unfortunately is often hidden from others."

Cable warmed up and then kicked himself for his irrational reaction. Of course there was nothing between them. She and Remy were just as close when she was dating Forge.

Consumed with his own thoughts, Nathan had not realized Storm was asking him a question. "I-I'm sorry. What did you say?

Storm's heart sank. 'He's not even interested in anything you say anymore.'

"I was just asking how you have been the last couple of days. We have not seen each other much."

"Oh. Nuthin' much. To tell you the truth, this downtime is beginning to get to me. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm looking for a battle; I've seen enough combat for twelve lifetimes. I guess I'm just suffering from a little cabin fever or something. I'd like to get outta here for a while, but I'm running out of places to go where I'm not constantly looking over my shoulder. I'd just like a relaxing change of scenery for once.

"Why not simply go someplace where no one would expect you to be." She said standing up.

Cable chuckled to himself. "Yeah, like where?" He took a drink.

Storm thought for a moment then shrugged. "Disneyland?"

'PPPPPPPPPHHHHHH! Cable spat out his water and began coughing.

Storm quickly made her way around the table a proceeded to pat Cable on the back. The worry she felt started to diminish when he began a mixture of his coughing and laughing at the same time.

"Are you all right?"

"Disneyland?????"

"Well....."

"Disneyland!!!!!"

"Who would think to look for you there?"

"I could spend my time sitting in the teacups."

"Exactly."

"Or flying around on that elephant ride."

"Why not?"

"Would you go with me?" Laughter stopped as Nathan put on a more serious face.

Storm paused, looking into his eyes for any sign of jest. She saw none.

"Why not." She said more quietly, with an equal seriousness.

There was a silence between them as they continued to look at each other.

Storm stood up, she had been crouched beside him since his coughing episode.

"I-I-um, I have some plants I must tend to."

Cable nodded. "Sure. I have some stuff to take care of too."

Storm headed for the door, and Nathan was beginning to chastise himself again.

Suddenly, Storm gasped loudly, hugged herself and dropped to her knees trembling.

 Nathan was at her side in an instant.

"Storm? Ororo! What's wrong!?!?" He was holding her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. She seemed to be in shock and could not hear him. "ORORO! He yelled into her mind.

This she could not help but notice. She blinked several times, still shaking. Na-Nathan???"

"What's wrong? What happened?" Storm looked frightened, which only heightened his worry.

"M-M-M'Rin! It is M'Rin!"

"Your. . . mother?" Nathan recalled Storm once telling him about a time in the Savage Land where after a long battle, Storm had gone off to spend some time by herself. She ended up traveling though a dimensional juncture, to another world, where she developed a relationship with the Warlord of the Skies- M'Rin. The two developed such a bond, they began regarding themselves as mother and daughter, something each was in need of.

"Something has happened. She is. . . not well. She-" She placed her head in her hands. "Goddess. . . she is. . . is she dying?"

"Don't you know?"

Storm shook her head. "No, my connection to her through my Cameo Crystal only lets me sense things generally, since we are so far away from each other."

She stood with Nathan's help. "I-I need to go to her."

"Sure. Of course."

"Right now! I- I have to. . ." She was looking about frantically. Outside, the sky, which had been growing increasingly dark, broke open in a downpour.

"Calm down. What you need to do first is calm down." He was still holding her shoulders.

"Ororo, are you all right?"

Logan was pushing the Professor's wheelchair into the kitchen.

Nathan recanted the events to them through a telepathic link, which took only an instant.

"I understand your sense of urgency Ororo," the Professor, "but I don't want you to going alone."

Storm opened her mouth to protest, but the Professor continued. "We are a family child. No one here need face hardship alone."

"I'll go with her." Nathan said.

"Nathan, you do not have t-"

"I'll go."

"While the two of you are gone, the role of team leader will fall to Logan." Logan rolled his eyes slightly. Although he made an excellent field leader when necessary, Wolverine hated the task.

Storm turned to Cable. "I would like to be underway within the next few minutes."

Gambit had been only three blocks away from the Xavier estate when the sky opened up. He was on his motorcycle. Pulling into a gas station, he called the person he was supposed to meeting and cancelled. He immediately headed back to the mansion. A perfect sunny day without a cloud in the sky, doesn't change that quickly, not on it's own. His Stormy was in trouble.

"You sure it won't strain you? I could use my own powers-"

"That would be an unnecessary strain on you. Anyway, it is not I who is carrying us, it is the wind."

Storm and Cable were in the Blackbird hanger walking towards the launch exit. The original Blackbird was under construction to make it usable again. Zero Tolerance had cleaned them out and it was by sheer luck that they stumble upon the older craft in the lake, where Forge had hidden it.

"Dem winds strong 'nough t'carry t'ree?" Gambit had entered the hanger, dripping wet. "T'anks for d'shower by d'way."

Storm created a small tunnel of wind around Gambit, drying his clothes.

"You are always welcome, my friend, but do you even know where we are going?"

"Does it matter? You got a problem, I'm d'ere."

To be continued. . .

Any comments? Questions? Send them to jimgi@sympatico.ca (under "Subject" write 'Gates' so that I get it and not my father. Thanx!)