[OP: "Hold Us Together" -- Matt Maher]

After the game night, things went back to their usual grind.

No lead turned up regarding Emma's situation, and everyone began to think it might be indefinite.

The girls took her shopping for more clothes and other essentials, since it seemed she would be there longer.

Emma wasn't thrilled about this, but she had a lot to think about after her conversation with Shine, and she accepted her extended stay with more grace than she had before. She knew she'd just have to adapt...

And it really wasn't too bad for her. After the first few days of dimension shock, and the weirdness of everyone being different, she began to get used to them.

And, really, compared to her reception in the other X-men's team, they were quite welcoming. No one told her she was a liar, no one acted like she was barging in (except Mystique), and they were all amiable, if not exactly friendly.

They saw her as someone in trouble, not an intruder, clearly, and she was accepted the way the other temporary residents were.

Warren found it a bit odd, but she probably found it more odd to see him not evil...though she didn't explain that.

While her snarky way of speaking did step on people's toes, they were so used to it from the other less pleasant guests--and sometimes the other team members--that it wasn't enough to make her really stand out to them.

All in all, Emma had never been treated better in any group, and she rather liked it, for what it was.

But she had her own worries still, as much as she kept them to herself.

She woke up at night, often, out of some dream about her own dimension.

The longer she was in this one, the more the other faded from her immediate memory, as Shine predicted it would...but it stayed in her subconscious and came out through dreams...or sometimes just an odd feeling of being in the wrong place or needing to remember something important.

Sometimes when she woke up, she was burning with shame over what she remembered before her dimension...and other times she had a hand to her lips, and she was trembling.

Whenever this happened, she sat for a while and thought about her questions about what happened.... It was almost unbearable then, the not knowing.

But in waking hours, she pushed it aside. She had no other option. And she enjoyed the mansion's activities, in a way. She liked how it was more like a real school, and the methods they used were...interesting.

She followed Shine around, singling her out as probably the most natural teacher out of all of them, and sat in on her classes to see how they worked.

It wasn't orthodox, but it was clear the kids, and adults too, loved her and found it fascinating...even when they were confused. Certainly Shine's mind went ahead of other people's at a surprising rate...but she was patient and enthusiastic, and most people like a teacher like that, even if they don't understand the subject matter very well.

Emma got interested in some of the discussions herself. It was hard not to.

In this way, about 2 weeks passed since her arrival--and came up on three.

And now it was the end of November, and Thanksgiving was literally that Thursday.

While certainly it seemed a little odd with Emma's situation, there was really no reason not to, since they couldn't help her yet.

Jean and Gambit had their usual fight over who got to cook, and they had to buy huge amounts of food for everyone.

Trinity would come for lunch, and then go home for her own family dinner, she said. And a few other guests also, the Billings being some.

Shine called off school for the Wednesday beforehand and took a much needed break herself.

But as luck would have it, that was the day she finally heard back from her siblings, who'd she written to, finally, to ask if they could do some research on their end about Emma Frost and see if they could turn up any clues as to her presence in their world.

They usually could help.

[I actually ask my sister to do this irl. Saves me time, and she tends to get really into it.]

"Hon, come here." She called Wally in from the hallway.

"Sure," Wally said. "Hey, we should go out, since we don't have to do any teaching or babysitting or anything today."

"Yeah, okay," Shine said. "But before we do...my sisters wrote back." She held up a long letter.

"Oh, guess they sent you a whole book's worth of info?" Wally said.

"Hardly, but this is concerning," Shine said. "I told them the circumstances Emma told me, though I didn't say the worst of it, but they found it all online anyway, so it didn't matter."

"Okay...so was it comic book record?" Wally said.

This was their way of saying that the fictional adaptation of the world events had been faithful. Often they diverged on points of info that got mixed up due to the authors being imperfect vessels for those stories. But sometimes they were really, really accurate, and it was frightening.

"Well, they're really good at gauging people's personalities from reading," Shine said. "And they're telling me here that they don't think Emma sounds very much like how she comes off in a lot of comics and movies and stuff. But they did find one source that sounded like her. They didn't tell me what--too much information and all that--but there is one little, tiny detail that could be important that she didn't tell me."

"Oh? What?" Wally said.

"I'd rather you just read it for yourself. Here." Shine handed him the right page. "I don't know if it changes anything, but it could be bad for the X-men."

Wally read it. "I don't see why that's so bad... I mean, it's really weird, but..." [They're talking about Emma's thing for Scott in Wolverine and the X-men...and some comics also, but there it was...grosser.]

"Uh, Wally...you know people get threatened easily," Shine said.

"Oh...yeah, I guess there's that," Wally winced. "But...they wouldn't... She doesn't seem..."

"No," Shine said. "But it's...interesting. We can't tell anyone though. It would be wrong."

"Well, anything about dimension stuff?" Wally said.

"No, but there is one thing here that caught my attention." Shine picked up a different page. "According to them, she did get damaged by the Phoenix, in the records...but it totally shattered her mind, not just her body. Took her a long time to recover. She wouldn't be like she is now, mostly coherent, just with PTSD...and I thought it was weird, after what I sensed from that thing, that she's this recovered this fast."

"Okay," Wally said. "This isn't really my strong suit, you know, but...could it just be she's had more time to recover and doesn't remember it?"

"That's one explanation," Shine said. "But why did Morph only get sent a message about her later, then? I find it hard to believe she'd have been here for months and he'd not have known... I feel like there's something else, something we're not thinking of."

"Or maybe that's overblown, and it's not really that damaging," Wally said.

Shine looked up at him oddly. "It's psionic fire in your mind.... How could that not be damaging?"

"She's tougher than she looks?" Wally shrugged. "I just don't see what else it could be. The fact is, she's not totally KO-ed from it, and that's good, because it'd be really bad if she was and stuck here and not knowing anything. I don't like to kick a gift horse in the mouth."

"I'd like to think it's just a gift horse," Shine said. "But I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something that might give us a clue about it."

"It just doesn't seem like a problem to me at all. Are you sure you're not just looking for one because it's bothering you that we haven't helped her yet?" 

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Because I think we're trying our best here, but we just can't make it happen."

"Why has no one come looking for her yet?" Shine said. "I feel like it's just hanging over us... I'm not afraid of it exactly, but I don't like it hanging over me. It's so hard to feel comfortable with what we're doing here with a looming threat."

"I think Emma's actually kind of getting used to being here. Maybe she's supposed to be. The way things happen is for a reason, don't you always say that? It's not a big deal to me."

Shine smiled. "Yeah, it never is...but can we just ignore it? We've seen it too many times--people mess with this stuff, and they almost destroy everything."

"And if that happens, we'll know about it when they get cocky, and that's that," Wally said. "We can't just go looking for them and not do our jobs here, right? That's nuts. We have all these great people here to hang with and be helping, and for now, Emma is safe here. So I see that as a win-win."

"I guess I do want to just get things done," Shine said. "But I am the one who told her she should try to learn something here... She certainly seems to be trying to do that...so much, I think she may be avoiding her problems..."

"Honey, I love you, but you're really, really trying to worry about this, when you really don't need to. We're not gods, all right? Let's just take it the way it comes, okay? I mean we have a party tomorrow."

Shine smiled. "Yeah...weird how normal it feels to spend Thanksgiving here instead of at home.... I've hardly been thinking about home at all."

"Me neither," Wally said. "You know, Cyclops has been letting me go on some of their minor missions lately... It's like clockwork now. They're pretty easy to work with. Not so much of that spotlight-grabbing as in the League. I guess they just don't care about it."

"I think I've almost forgotten that I was ever not friends with the girls, and the guys, even. It sure happened fast, now that I think of it.... But there's more on my mind.... Maybe I'm stressed about Emma because I don't want to think about what Mike asked us about."

"About making an official thing out of the outreach to the mutants?" Wally guessed. "I thought it was a great idea."

"Yes...but he wants us to lead it," Shine said. "I see why--we've pushed for this...but that kind of time commitment? I have no idea how long we'll be here.... I think the X-men could handle it eventually, but they're not ready yet, I don't think, for how much patience that would require. Storm is the only one even close, but she still has a lot to learn about the Church and how things work in it, structurally. But this is big. People are interested in it now. If we stall on it till the X-men are ready, it might die out."

"I think it'll happen eventually with or without us. But I think it'd be cool to help. I've never gotten to do something like that before. What's wrong with it?"

"The more public we are, the more problems it causes when we vanish out of the world," Shine said. "We could step down but...not right away. We could be looking at a year-long stay or more if we commit like that."

"I'd be okay with that, actually," Wally said. "I'm in no hurry to jet...but you want to pray about it."

"I have been," Shine said. "And I got this: I thought of that story of Moses on the mountain of Sinai, when God tells him they can go ahead, and God will stay on the mountain if they want. And Moses says, 'We won't go unless You go with us.'"

"That's heavy," Wally said, sitting down next to her. "You think that means we can't go yet?"

"Not unless God goes," Shine said. "But is the mountain here? Or is it our world? Which are we going out from? I'm not sure. But after I read that, I could almost hear it, in my head, something along the lines of: It's up to you."

"Up to us, huh?" Wally said. "Is...is that allowed?"

"It's...been known to happen, I think," Shine said. "God will give us a choice, sometimes, I think, about what we want to do. There may be a better option, but He may decide not to force us, because it will be a difficult one. If that's true, then if we linger here, it might be dangerous. The thing with Emma is one reason, and the mission itself is bound to get a lot more blow-back once people start taking it seriously as a threat. Which they will. If we stick it out, we could be more vulnerable, because we'll be doing normal, human things. I don't mind doing them, but the special things we do to manage danger, we can't do that in front of most people. That's one way it could be harder."

"Yeah, but I don't really think that bugs me," Wally said. "It's just how it is."

"Or we could stop at just getting the X-men trained and decide that's our fair share of work as DJs," Shine said. "And that would be enough to change things...just not as fast, probably. That's how I see it. Do you concur?"

"It sounds right to me, but I'd be fine with staying, like I said. I'd hate to ditch them when this is just taking off too. It's pretty exciting.... And it's not like a lot of time passes at home."

"Well, we can't count on that. You know it's unpredictable."

"I'd still be okay with it. I think the League can take care of itself, now. With or without me, they have a lot of people. What about you?"

"I've spent so much time away from home now, that I think I'm just used to staying in touch anyway," Shine said. "To me, it wouldn't make a huge difference. I do worry we are getting too comfortable here."

"Shine." Wally took her hand suddenly. "Isn't that how you felt about us getting together, though?"

Shine was silent.

"And that worked out really well." Wally grinned impishly. "Too well, really. I mean, it's almost sad how much better off we are--like, what was holding us together before, am I right?"

Shine gave him a look but stifled a laugh.

"You tend to be really forceful when you're sure of stuff," Wally said carefully. "But when you're afraid to try something a little different, you get, like...kind of confused...and hesitant, and you second guess stuff...like you're doing now. But doesn't it always work out really well when you try it anyway?"

Shine pursed her lips, then nodded. "I do that...it's true."

"I think we should. We both like it, we're both willing, and you said God's leaving it up to us," Wally said. "Or at least, He's not forcing us to do what we don't want. So what bigger green light could there be? I feel good about it, actually."

"Okay." Shine finally squeezed his hand. "I guess...it's settled, then.... Well, that was a load off...also kind of terrifying, but..."

"That's the spirit," Wally said. "Now, let's put all this super serious stuff behind us and go out and do something fun and not think. I'm dying to try to just not think for a while."

"Okay, fine." Shine got up. "I'll try to not think. It'll be a Herculean effort, but for you, babe."

"You're the best." Wally gave her a thumbs up.

[They're such dorks.]

* * *

The following day, the smells were so good in the kitchen that it made everyone want to turn rebel and eat early.

Another reason to be thankful, Cindy finally came home from the hospital, and she was much, much better, though still scarred... By now everyone was used to it, and they were just glad to have her back.

At some point in the time since the game night, Morph and Mystique had kind of gotten over their fight...sort of...

She still wouldn't talk about it, but she stopped acting distant and seemed to direct her anger more at Emma instead.

Morph pretended it didn't happen, following Shine's advice, and decided to just act normal.

Emma seemed to find it funny, if anything.

She and Mystique continued to jab at each other. But so far, it didn't come to more than that...and with Morph not adding to it, and everyone else ignoring it mostly, Emma didn't have a lot of fuel to throw on the fire.

Mystique still thought it was unfair, but since no one acted like they noticed, she concluded the X-men weren't going to care about it, one way or the other, and she didn't worry about being kicked out.

In fact, she'd almost forgotten that this whole thing was supposed to be temporary. Since she'd been helpful to them, they treated her less coldly, and if they didn't exactly accept her as a team member, they didn't treat her like an intruder.

https://youtu.be/6AIa3kdKFhg

[Cover Me In Sunshine-- P!NK, Willow Sage Hart.]

Rogue was getting on better with her also.  Even Kurt was. She was being less rude to him.

Mystique didn't really know why she didn't feel as pressed to be mean anymore. Maybe it was just that there was no point in it, if the situation was going to continue for a long time. She wasn't one to rock the boat, after all.

Sometimes she thought that she was getting too comfortable, and the haunting feeling that it would all end soon enough, a feeling she never put into words because it seemed stupid to even ask, would come on her hard.

But she pushed it aside, usually. It was stupid to think too soon about when she would go. She had no other prospects right now. She'd worry about it when she did.

Whenever that would be...

She had actually begun to think she'd be forgotten about by the criminal mutant world. Maybe they were finally tired of pursuing revenge...

What helped make this seem like the case was just that Mystique had never had such a long period of nothing going wrong, unless she was living in disguise, but she wasn't...and yet nothing had happened to get her evicted.... She was beating the odds for once...and it made it harder to think something would happen...at least most of the time. When the dread of it did come, she tried to think of something else.

She also grew more interested in what Shine and Wally both taught, and even Kurt. It had seemed to work. She could at least be curious...

But did she dare believe something like that? Wasn't it too good to be true?

At some point she had at least come to think that it would be better if it were true, even if she couldn't bring herself to believe it. It would be better if everyone were like them...

But it was bound to occur to her to ask eventually that, even if not everyone was like them, wouldn't it be better to be like them herself, if it was possible? And if it was, if it really had nothing to do with how good you were now, and everything to do with how willing you were to admit that and ask for help...then had she been wrong her whole life, in fact, about how things worked?

Perhaps that was what made her soften ever so slightly. Be less rigid, less on the defensive.

Not everyone really noticed, but those who did started to find they liked her after all. 

Morph especially wondered if Mystique really had just been like a caged animal at first and now was starting to feel like a human again. It wasn't that she talked that different or even acted that different in many ways, but she just didn't seem as tense about it, and maybe that undermining fear had been the real reason no one trusted her...

Lots of new thoughts, for them, that was sure.

Thanksgiving coming at this time seemed poetically appropriate.

"This is the first time in years I've felt like I had anythin' to be thankful for," Logan admitted to Storm, while they were still waiting for everyone to be ready.

"I know.... I can't believe how much has changed this year," she said.

Silence... There was sort of something else that had changed. Logan kind of didn't answer that.

He told himself to stop thinking about it.

But apparently, Shine and Wally had had enough.

"Man--" Wally pulled him aside while they were chopping wood. "--you have got to stop with this whole thing with Storm."

"With...what are you talking about?" Logan said--but he sounded way guilty.

"Dude, even I'm not that clueless," Wally said. 

"Yeah." Shine was leaning on the wall, watching them split wood and dodging the chips flying out of it. "It's really frustrating to watch you pretend like nothing is going on there."

"You two are crazy," Logan said.

"Logan," Shine said, "come on." She just gave him such a look.

Logan swung the axe a few more times before he finally said, very reluctantly, "It's nothin'. Just a lot has changed this year."

"I'd say so," Wally said. "I can't believe you guys aren't going out yet."

"What?!" Logan dropped the axe. "Don't be stupid. That would never happen. Can you imagine that?"

"Very easily, actually," Shine said. "I mean, you've always been really good friends." She used her fingers like they were a list. "You've had good trust for a long time, you talk all the time about things, and you've both come to believe pretty much the same things. I don't see why it would never happen. Unless you just find her unattractive."

"Which would mean you need glasses..." Wally said. "Just saying. I mean, she's not my type, because Shine is my only type, but if I were one of you guys, definitely."

"I understand she's beautiful as much as anyone, hon," Shine said. "You can say it."

"It's not that," Logan said. "It's just...not gonna happen. Come on, that would be too...ya know.... Why should I explain it to ya anyway?" Suddenly irritated. "It's none of yer business. Stay out of it."

"We're just trying to help," Shine said. "Anyway, why can't we just say it'd be a good idea? I mean...literally any other girl you've been around you usually try to date at some point."

"That's not even true," Logan said.

"Be honest," Wally said. "Does it just bother you that she's actually available, and you only go for what you can't have?"

Logan glared at him. "Say that again, Fly Boy?!"

"He's right, you know," Shine said. "You avoid girls who'd actually be good for you, Logan. It's a problem. A lot of people have it. Why not try something different? What's so scary about it?"

"Not scary," Logan said.

"Then what?" Wally said. "You can't give us that 'it'd be like dating my sister' line, 'cause, bro, I've seen you look at her sometimes...just when you think no one's looking."

"Hey!" Logan got red. "I do not!"

"We can keep guessing until you admit it," Shine said. "And I haven't heard you say you don't like her yet. So there's something else. If you didn't, you'd just tell us."

Logan gave up.

"I like 'er fine," he said in a lower voice. "But Storm isn't the type for someone like me."

"Because you're a mess?" Shine asked. "Or because it's too healthy?"

"Shut up!" Logan snapped. "You're havin' fun with this, aren't ya?"

"I'm sorry." Shine changed her tone. "You're right, this is sensitive. But in all seriousness, is that it? An unworthy thing?"

"Maybe it is," Logan admitted. "Storm's always been the most...shall we say, pure-hearted out of the team. High standards...all of us respect 'er for it. But she's never been interested in things like...like what you're talkin' about. Just once...and that was...weird...so I don't think it would happen, even if I was goin' to, and I'm not goin' to, but if I was, she wouldn't."

"That's how I felt about Shine," Wally said, amused. "Wow, things really do never change, do they?"

Shine threw a wood chip at him.

"Ouch! What? You know it was true," Wally said.

"It wasn't that you weren't good enough for me, it's that I had major insecurities!" Shine said. "And, Logan, you're being a moron!" She threw a wood chip at him also. He didn't even dodge.

"It's cute and all that you have such a high opinion of her," Shine said. "But that's kind of the point. And what about what she wants? Storm isn't that different from other women, deep down. She gets lonely too. And she wishes for the same things as us. I was a lot like her once, it's true. I think it's a good thing to have standards. When you're as soft-hearted as she is, it's too easy to sign up for something unhealthy because you care so easily...but she's learning from her mistakes. And as I recall you were a part of that process. And you wouldn't take advantage of that weakness of hers. You must be one of the biggest softies around here, for all your tough guy act."

"Hey!" Logan scowled at her.

"Sure, you have all kinds of issues," Shine said mercilessly, "but I don't think they're the kind that would bother Storm. If that helps. Why not just try it? The nice thing is, even if it didn't work out, Storm is the kind of person who'd accept that and let it go and still be friends afterwards. There's literally nothing to lose, but if you don't try, you could lose something really beautiful, couldn't you? Your hesitancy here may be a good thing. I once had this conversation with Batman--twice--once about him, and once when he dished it back to me, which was humiliating. But that's what we told each other. Maybe you're afraid because you know it'd be different than the past...and that scares you. But it draws you too. And we're always afraid of what scares us and draws us at the same time. But it's a good sign if you feel that, usually. Only rarely are we afraid to want something if it's wrong. Usually it's because it's right."

Logan stared at her, then at the wood pile.

"She's right, you know." Wally shrugged. "If you want my opinion...look, man, we're not trying to force you, we just...we want you to be happy, you know? And not to be too scared to try something just because you think you're too messed up. That's just no way to live. You know what I mean?"

"Thanks," Logan finally said. "I get it, you two saps are hopeless...but I'm not gonna let ya decide for me."

"Okay." Shine shrugged. "That's fine. We've said our say. Dinner will be ready soon anyway, so hurry up and get that firewood ready. It's freezing."

"Yeah, man, hurry up," Wally said, over dramatically. "I'm way ahead of you."

He speed-collected it.

"Because you cheat," Logan said.

"The guy who literally can cut trees with his claws really shouldn't be talking about me cheating," Wally shot back, rushing inside.

Shine followed him, carrying some more logs with her.

"Weirdos," Logan muttered to himself.

https://youtu.be/s6VslPcxhs4

[Try--P!NK]

[Oh, please just get with the program, Logan. How many more chapters do we have to drag this out?

Talk about a slow burn.... At least it's not been 200 chapters. *Looks nervously at her MHA story.*

Also, if they had a ship song, this one would have to be it, in my mind. Fits too well.]

* * *

At the lunch, which was still a feast, Mike and Anne asked everyone something they were thankful for.

Some people wouldn't answer, others gave standard answers.

"I'm thankful that I moved here," Ryan said. He was going to visit his parents later that day also, but they lived close enough for him to still eat lunch with all of them.

Kitty looked at her plate. She didn't normally celebrate Thanksgiving anyway and didn't seem to be in a great mood about it.

"I'm thankful I got to meet all of you," Trinity said nicely.

"So am I," Kevin said, which made people laugh.

"Where do I start?" Anne said. "So much happened...but somehow, even after losing our church, we've grown and been more blessed than I could have imagined, so I have no complaints. What about you, Mike?"

"Just the same," Mike said. "And all of you had something...so I'd say it's been a good year. Can't believe it's almost over."

"I can't believe it's been almost 6 months," Shine said. "But since we've all been talking about this, Wally and I also have some news that I hope will make everyone happy."

"Oh, yeah, in style," Wally said.

"What?" Rogue asked.

"We've given it a lot of thought and prayer," Shine said. 

"And," Wally picked it up, "both of us feel like we're supposed to stick around here for longer, probably into next year, it looks like."

"Really?" Storm said.

"Like a long time?" Rogue smiled.

Even Gambit didn't look put out.

"Yep," Wally said. "You'll have to put up with us that long, but we can't leave you crazy guys here alone--you couldn't handle it without us."

"I don't know about that," Scott said.

Jean shot him a look.

"But I'm not against the idea of you staying," he said. 

"Wow, the holiday spirit got into you," Shine said, amused. "But that's okay, Scott. I think I'd almost miss you. I mean, who would I make fun of?"

Scott took that in stride because it was a holiday, and even he tried to be a little more laid back on those.

"I thought you were permanent residents," Emma said, confused. She hadn't said much, because she wasn't used to the humans being there.

"Oh, no," Shine said. "We move around a lot, but we're quite happy to be extending our stay here. I'd miss you weirdos a lot."

"And we would miss you," Storm said. "This is joyous news indeed."

"Yeah, to be honest, I wondered when ya'd be goin'," Rogue said. "So I'm real glad to hear it."

"You should just stay forever," one of the kids, Ruthie, said.

"Yeah!" the other kids said.

Everyone laughed.

"I think we should have a toast," Xavier said. "To a year that has had its ups and downs, but that we still have a lot to be glad about despite that. Any year you can say that about is a good one for the X-men."

"Amen to that," Kurt agreed.

Everyone toasted with either their alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages.

[Aw...

Yeah, the drama is coming, but let's just enjoy this. This is really sweet.

Though I can't wait for the Christmas chapter...which will be soon.]

https://youtu.be/F8ZWzQjHU-c

[Light My Love-- Greta Van Fleet]