Strange Things Done In The Midnight Sun: Part One

by Alicia McKenzie

He remembered dying, and living, and everything in between. Two lives, two worlds--and yet now he'd lost both. It seemed ironic. Hell, it seemed unfair. But he really wasn't in the position to argue with God, or fate, or the universe, whoever was responsible for this.

Alex Summers wasn't precisely sure where he was. Limbo, maybe? A limbo, that was. Not the Limbo. That would just be too much. But there were no demons here, no hellish landscape. Nothing much of anything, actually. Nothing with form--no solidity. Just light and sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Maybe he was going insane. He'd been here for long enough that it made sense. You weren't supposed to spend an eternity caught between life and death. You were supposed to choose one or the other and get it over with. Indecisiveness in that area was apparently a problem the universe wasn't prepared to cope with.

Funny. He really didn't remember being asked which he wanted, life or death, one world or the other. How did you answer a question that had never been asked?

Alex reflected, thoughtfully, that trying to count all the different shades of color he was falling through would probably be a safer and less psychosis-inducing method of killing time than a philosophical analysis of his situation.

He was at the two hundred and thirty-seventh different shade of blue when he hit a wall that wasn't really there, and everything went white. The sudden lack of color was disorienting, as was the fact that he seemed to actually have a body again, and that body was cold. The roaring in his ears was gone, replaced by a strangely familiar, shrill whistle that he somehow felt, as well as heard.

Wind. The realization hit him, and Alex struggled up to his hands and knees, blinking in an attempt to clear his vision as he stared down at the whiteness below him. His eyes didn't seem to want to work. All he could see was white, above and below, as far as the eye could--

No. Not just white. Alex took a deep, shuddering breath as his mind registered the faint blues and greys mingled with the white above him. Sky, that was a sky, and the reason the ground was white was because it was covered in snow.

And he was wearing the remnants of his uniform--tatters, really, and no protection against the biting wind. Shivering, Alex struggled to his feet, looking around desperately for some kind of shelter. He had to get somewhere warm--out of the wind, at least.

"Wonderful," he muttered, seeing nothing, nothing at all. The horizon was perfectly blank in every direction. Just snow and a half-naked Summers. "Not that I'm not glad to be back in reality," he said to no one in particular, "but I really would've preferred landing somewhere warmer." A beach, maybe. White sand, blue water, fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them. That would've been nice.

South, he decided. He'd head south. Warmer places were south. Unless of course this was Antarctica, in which case he would be screwed if he did that--no, he wasn't going there. South was good. South made the most sense. Alex staggered grimly onwards, glad that his boots were at least mostly intact. He wouldn't have made much progress in bare feet.

The snow had a strange texture. It wasn't soft or fluffy, not powdery at all. It was hard, almost crunchy underfoot. Old snow, he thought. Snow that had fallen and stayed put--which certainly suggested that whatever frozen wasteland he'd been dropped into here wasn't going to experience a sudden warming trend.

Not a natural one, at least. But he didn't think he was capable of producing one of his own at the moment, either. Wherever he'd been until just now, it hadn't been someplace with the ambient energy he needed to recharge his powers. He felt utterly drained, and while this place looked more promising, it would take time.

Time he wouldn't have if he froze to death. Picking up the pace, Alex wondered irritably why God or fate or the universe, if he/she/it had been so determined to drop him into a winter wonderland, couldn't at least have dropped him here in clothes that were intact.

Winter wonderland--it really wasn't, he thought. The phrase brought to mind picturesque scenery and gentle snowfall, like in a Christmas movie. Or a snowglobe. This was just--

The ground gave way beneath his feet, and Alex let out a yell of protest as he fell twenty feet or so, somehow managing not to land on his head. Wincing as he sat up, he looked at the rippled, blueish walls of ice on either side of him and wondered exactly how the hell he was supposed to get himself out of here.

With a cracked laugh, he sat back down in the pile of snow that had broken his fall, and considered the problem. Once his powers recharged, he would probably be able to burn himself a path out of here. Except that would take hours, and it wasn't any warmer down here than it had been up there.

This day was definitely going from bad to worse. Well, not that the whole popping-back-into-reality thing was so bad, it was just the circumstances, and damn it, did everything always have to be so difficult?

***

He had tried to climb out six times, and earned himself nothing but a number of bruises and severely injured pride. It was twenty-five, maybe thirty feet. He SHOULD be able to climb out, but the ice was so slick he couldn't find any purchase.

And worse, he'd only been down here for an hour, two at tops. Not enough to recharge. He still couldn't seem to muster enough for an even halfway-decent blast to start creating a path out of the crevasse. Hauling himself wearily back to his feet, Alex paced back and forth, trying to keep warm. The exertion had helped, and at least down here he was sheltered somewhat from the wind, but the cold was still winning. He knew that. What had been an uncomfortable and highly aggravating situation was quickly crossing the line into desperate.

This really wasn't funny, he thought crossly, folding his arms across his chest and trying not to shiver. Whoever had said the universe had a sense of humor had left out the fact that it was a nasty, malicious excuse for a sense of humor that didn't seem at all funny when you were the butt of the joke.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to climb again, and got maybe ten feet above the ground before he slipped and landed back in the pile of snow at the bottom of the crevasse. "Shit!" Alex shouted angrily, and fought the urge to get back up and start kicking one of the walls. That would be more or less completely unproductive, he told himself firmly. Satisfying, but unproductive. And with luck, the 'ground' would actually be an ice shelf that venting his temper would crack. That would just top off the day nicely.

The echo of his shout seemed to take forever to die, and even when it did, the silence didn't return. Alex sprang back to his feet, straining to hear the distant...barking? It certainly sounded like barking, he thought incredulously. Dogs. Several dogs, from the sound of it.

And since dogs didn't generally go wandering around on glaciers all by their lonesome--"HEY!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. "HELP!!!"

The barking was definitely getting closer. Alex hurriedly climbed a few feet off the ground, as far as he could get easily. "I'm down HERE!" he shouted upwards at the edge of the crevasse. "HERE!!!!"

Something was scraping through the snow up there, and the barking was very close now, but settling down to the odd yipe and growl. Alex made a wild grasp for a handhold just beyond his reach, and slipping, crashing back to the ground. "Fuck!"

"Good morning to you, too, Havok."

Alex had been scrambling back to his feet, but the shock of hearing a familiar voice hit him hard. He sat down hard, too incredulous to do more than register the impact. He knew that voice. He KNEW that voice. He opened his mouth to say something, but words failed him, and he was left staring dumbly upwards at the tall, parka-wrapped figure who'd appeared at the edge of the crevasse.

"If I'd known today was going to involve running into dead relatives, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed," Cable said with an alarming smirk, removing the dark goggles he was wearing and staring back down at Alex speculatively. "You're looking surprisingly well, all things considered. Didn't you get blown up a year or so ago?" Cable's eyes narrowed and that mismatched grey and gold gaze grew hard. "Please don't tell me you're a clone."

Alex opened his mouth again, but the words still didn't come. His thoughts were running in circles, and didn't seem to have any inclination to straighten up and start flying right, and--blown up? Alex struggled back up to his feet and stood there, swaying. His eyes were burning, and he didn't think it was from the wind.

Home. Could he really be home? After everything that had happened, he was having a hard time believing that he'd just been--returned, just like that. He was a Summers. Things weren't supposed to be that easy.

He swallowed hard, looking back up at Cable. Who, if anything, looked even more wary than he had a moment ago. Alex had often wondered if that was his nephew's default setting.

"Could you--" He had to stop and swallow again. "Mind giving me a hand? I'm freezing my ass off down here." They could establish bonafides later.

"I can see that. What's with the 'strategic tatters' look?" Cable turned away, vanishing from sight for a moment, but returned almost instantly with a coil of rope. Alex let out his breath on a sigh, relieved that Cable wasn't going to keep grilling him. Sometimes it was handy to have a telepath around. Particularly when the telepathy was mitigating the suspicious nature of the telepath in a position to help you out or leave you to freeze to death. "Am I the only Summers that can manage to keep his uniform intact on a regular basis?" Cable asked, tossing one end of the rope down into the crevasse and pulling the other end around himself in a makeshift belay.

"Wouldn't--talk," Alex managed as he grabbed the rope and started to ascend slowly, hand over hand. "I seem to remember--you losing most of yours on the moon when you were fighting Stryfe."

"If you're trying to prove to me that you are who you appear to be," Cable said dryly, "you don't need to bother." As Alex approached the top of the ice wall, he leaned over, extending a hand. "I can sense that much."

Alex wondered about his choice of words, but grabbed the extended hand and managed to stifle a yelp as he was hauled upwards without further ado and deposited on solid ground. Cable didn't even look to have broken a sweat doing it, either, and Alex was rather envious. He was sweating, but he wasn't any warmer for it. In fact, he thought the droplets of sweat were actually freezing as they formed--

Cable took off his parka and offered it to Alex, who took it gratefully. "Well," Alex said, trying to ignore the way his teeth were chattering. The wind was much more noticeable up here than it had been in the crevasse. "That works for you, but I could use a little more r-reassurance that I actually belong in this DIMENSION."

Cable raised an eyebrow. "Plane. Greystone. Boom. Sound familiar?"

There was a lump in his throat, suddenly. Alex looked away, focusing on the parka's zipper, which was sticking. Handy, really. If it hadn't gotten stuck, he would have had to pretend, and Cable probably would have seen right through that. He took a deep, shaky breath, and managed a wan smile. "I guess no one's shown up claiming to be me, then?" His voice was a little hoarse, but not too bad. Not too revealing.

"Incredibly, no. What are the odds?"

Home. After everything that had happened, he was actually home. Just like that. Alex took a deep, unsteady breath, and yanked the zipper upwards. Later. He'd think it all through later. Right now he just wanted to get off this damned glacier and somewhere warm.

Cable was watching him with an inscrutable look, seemingly unbothered by the cold. Then again, Alex thought inanely, the sweater he'd been wearing under the parka looked fairly thick. And the bulletproof vest probably helped.

Alex opened his mouth to ask, then decided he really didn't want to know. He looked away again, and only then spotted the dogsled. "Oh," he said weakly. "That's what was barking." The dogs were lounging in the snow, obviously perfectly comfortable. The lead dog gave Alex what he could have sworn was a contemptuous look.

"Dogs will do that," Cable said gravely. Alex opened his mouth to deliver a snappy retort, but wound up standing there with his mouth hanging open when no snappy retort came to mind. His demeanor thawing a little, Cable reached out and nudged Alex in the direction of the dogsled. "Come on. We should get back to civilization, such as it is around here."

"Where are we?"

"Greenland."

"Oh," Alex said inanely. "That's nice."

***

Greenland. Northwest Greenland, Alex soon discovered, and almost six hundred kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, which explained the whole 'frozen wasteland' look the place was sporting. He didn't think he'd ever been quite this far north before, Alex thought, pulling the blanket more securely around himself and shuddering as he looked out the window. There were icebergs floating by in the fjord outside. Maybe it was just him and his recent brush with hypothermia, but he really couldn't understand why people would pick this as a vacation spot.

But they did, apparently. The room he and Cable were sitting in was part of an honest-to-goodness hotel, set out on an island opposite what was apparently the area's biggest town. It wasn't much of a town--or a hotel, quite frankly. But it was warm, had decent room service, and was definitely preferable to camping out on the glacier. Alex shivered again, and took a bite of his sandwich.

"You're very quiet," Cable observed from where he was sitting on the bed, poring over a couple of maps. He'd given Alex a brief summary - more like a military briefing, really - of everything that had happened in the last 'year or so' since his untimely not-quite-death, and had then backed off to let him absorb the information. "Still cold?"

Alex shrugged. "Nah," he said, as lightly as he could manage. Although it was technically a lie. He couldn't quite stop shivering, but he wasn't going to admit it, not when Cable had driven the dogsled all the way back with no coat on and shown no sign that the cold was bothering him. After all, Alex reasoned, he was the senior Summers here, and there was a certain element of dignity to be maintained.

"Liar." Cable carefully folded up one of his maps, and gave Alex a measuring look. "Did you want anything else from room service?" He'd insisted on ordering food, although he hadn't touched a bite himself. Alex suspected that his nephew had made an executive decision that Uncle Alex looked underfed and taken steps.

"Haven't finished my sandwich yet," Alex said, waggling it at him. Cable grunted and turned his attention back to the other map, and Alex watched, his curiosity providing a helpful distraction from the shitload of so-so, bad, and terrible news that had just been dumped on him. "Something you didn't mention--" he started.

Cable gave him an irritated look. "I told you, I don't know why you wound up here. For all I knew, you were drawn to my bio-signature--"

"--that's not what I was going to say," Alex said, nettled by the interruption, and a little surprised. It was a question he'd like answered, admittedly, but it wasn't the one he'd intended to ask. Had being dropped back into this reality done something to his shields? He'd had telepaths pick up on unasked questions, but that one hadn't precisely been on the surface of his mind. "I was just going to point out that you didn't tell me what you were doing here in the first place."

Cable's eyes narrowed. Alex reflected that the 'are you questioning me, impudent mortal?' look Cable was giving him would probably be pretty effective on people who'd never giggled over his naked baby pictures. "Didn't I?" Cable asked in an incongruously mild voice. "I must have left that out."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on," he chided lightly. "If you can't tell family, who can you tell?"

Okay, that was definitely more of an 'if you were an insect, I'd squash you' sort of look. "You're conveniently forgetting that if I was going to tell anyone, which I'm not, I'd probably tell a complete stranger before I told family," Cable said harshly. "Drop it, Alex. It's got nothing to do with you."

Alex straightened in the chair and glared right back at him. "Except that I wound up in the middle of it, whatever it is," he responded, more than just a bit irked now. He wasn't asking for all the details, he just wanted to know if anyone was liable to break down the door and come in with guns blazing anytime in the near future. It would be nice to get some sleep without that possibility lurking in the back of his mind, and he thought he was fairly justified in worrying. After all, this was Cable he was dealing with here, and--

"I do not attract trouble," Cable snapped, getting up off the bed. "Don't be ridiculous." He pulled on his coat and headed for the door. "I'm going to go arrange for your plane tickets. There's no direct way back to the States from here, but it shouldn't take more than a couple of days of travel."

"Cable--"

"I'll be back," Cable said, and Alex grimaced as the door slammed pointedly behind him.

Well, shit, Alex thought, grimacing. He hadn't meant to start anything. Was it really that unreasonable to want to know exactly what Cable was doing in such a godforsaken place? It wasn't precisely around the corner from the mansion, after all, and he'd only wanted to know what sort of mess he'd landed in. Wasn't that fair?

He imagined himself presenting that particular argument to Cable, and snorted at the mental image. Badgering him about it would be pointless, probably. Besides, Alex thought, his eyes straying to the map still open on the bed, maybe he could find out a little of what he wanted to know right here. Subtlety, he thought with an inward smirk. That was the key.

Throwing off the blanket and absently adjusting the overlarge sweater - they hadn't been able to find him much in the way of clothes, so the sweater was a loaner from Cable and far too big for him - Alex went across to the bed and sat down to take a closer look at the map. If Cable happened to come back in right now, he'd just have to plead insatiable curiosity and deal with the inevitable 'I should have left you on the glacier' glare.

The map was of Greenland, of course. Well, he hadn't really expected it to be a map of the Bahamas, had he? Disko Bay, where they were right now according to what Cable had told him, was clearly marked, but it was at the extreme south of the map, nearly off the chart entirely. The bulk of the map was depicting the extreme northwest of Greenland. Farther into the frozen wasteland, Alex thought, and then frowned as he realized what occupied the dead center of the map.

"The Thule airbase," he murmured to himself. "Oh, I'm not liking this." The airbase hadn't been circled in red or anything, but the map itself was evidence enough. And it made sense, in an alarming sort of way. If there was going to be anything that piqued his nephew's interest in Greenland, logic suggested it might very well be connected to the single military base in the area--a military base that, as Alex knew from his time in X-Factor, had often been the site of 'black' projects. Not a soft target, that was for sure, and since Cable didn't appear to have X-Force stashed in the bathroom, Alex could only assume that whatever he was up to, he was very likely flying solo.

"Stupid--so stupid--" Alex was honest enough to admit that he'd pulled some questionable Lone Ranger crap himself, but that didn't mean he felt obligated to turn a blind eye if he saw a member of his family doing the same thing. If he left, and something happened, how would he explain it to Scott?

Thinking about Scott darkened Alex's mood even further, and he got up, moving back to the window to stare blindly out at the ice-choked fjord. He knew perfectly well that part of the reason he was dwelling on the question of what Cable was up to was simply to avoid dealing with what had happened while he'd been away.

Apocalypse was dead. This was undeniably a good thing, but the thought of what Scott had suffered in the process was enough to make Alex feel sick to his stomach. He knew something of what it was like to have someone take away your control, your free will, but it must have been unimaginably worse for Scott. Sharing his mind, his body, with that monster--Alex shuddered. Cable hadn't said much about how Scott was coping with the aftermath. Not well, Alex imagined. In fact, 'not well' was probably putting it mildly.

He sighed, picking up the blanket again and slinging it around his shoulders. Would things have been different if he'd been here? he wondered restlessly. It bothered him that the Living Monolith had been one of the Twelve. Was that the way it had been intended, or had Abdol been involved simply because Alex had been 'dead'? He wished he had the answer to that question. Or maybe he didn't. Maybe he really didn't want to know.

And maybe his concern for whatever Cable was about to get himself into wasn't entirely unselfish. Maybe he just wasn't sure he wanted to go home quite yet.

***

Something roused him from a fitful sleep, and Alex sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and wondering where that strange light was coming from. Night had come early, and Cable had 'suggested' they get some sleep. Well, actually, he'd turned out the lights and told Alex he could either go to sleep willingly or be knocked out telepathically. Probably his idea of being soliticious. Alex blinked at the bedside clock and realized only an hour or two had gone by since then. Definitely not long enough to see them through the long arctic night.

And it wasn't that any of the lights in the room were on. This was a strange, pale greenish light, and it was definitely coming from the window. Through the curtains, no less. Alex blinked blearily in that direction, and only then woke up enough to realize that Cable was sitting crosslegged on the floor in the middle of the room.

"What are you doing?"

"It's the aurora," Cable said in a neutral voice. "Go back to sleep."

"That's not what I asked," Alex grumbled, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and peering at Cable balefully. He was sitting there, straight-backed, hands resting on his knees as if he were preparing to do yoga or something. Very odd. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

Cable looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. "You were too loud," he said, a distinct edge creeping into his voice. The greenish light from the window seemed to linger around him, taking on a golden tinge and casting his face into sharp shadows. Alex opened his mouth, and Cable scowled at him. "Who the flonq said anything about snoring?" he snapped, answering the semi-facetious question Alex hadn't gotten the chance to ask.

Alex muttered a curse under his breath. "Would you quit doing that?" he muttered, and then decided it was time to shed some nice artificial light on the subject. The aurora-glow was beginning to creep him out, and Cable was really doing a smashing job of that all on his own. He didn't need any help.

Leaning over, Alex turned the lamp on. Immediately, Cable winced, raising a hand to shield his eyes, and the lamp rocked back and forth and then smashed itself against the wall. Alex yelped, sliding backwards on the bed in a futile attempt to get out of range. But none of the other furniture started to fly, so he stepped on the impulse to dive under the bed and gave Cable an appalled look instead.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he demanded. Cable just blinked at the remains of the lamp, and Alex scowled. "Hey! Smashing-Furniture Guy! I'm talking to you!"

Cable flinched, looking up at him almost defensively. Even though the lamp had died such an untimely death and plunged the room back into the aurora-lit dimness, Alex was pretty sure that Cable looked a little more red in the face than usual.

"I was just trying--" Cable stopped, then gave him an aggravated look. "You shouldn't have turned it on."

"Oh, so this is MY fault?" Alex's scowl deepened as Cable avoided his eyes. His grip on his temper was beginning to get more than a little shaky. "Look," he went on sarcastically, "I'm fully aware of the fact that you're a secretive son of a bitch, but if you're going to lose your temper at me and start breaking things, why not put a little enthusiasm into it?"

Cable finally met his eyes, and Alex's annoyance faded a little at the flustered, edgy expression on his face. "You want to see me smashing things with enthusiasm?" he asked harshly, but the flash of anxiety that crossed his face as he glanced back at the lamp made the question much less threatening than it had undoubtedly been intended to be.

Alex gave him a thin smile. "Don't. If I have to reciprocate, I might bring the building down." The banter covered the fact that he was getting increasingly frustrated--and confused. He just didn't know Cable well enough to figure out what the hell was going on, and that bothered him. *I was just trying--*, Cable had said. Trying to do what? Obviously something other than break the lamp--maybe just to turn it off?

The golden glow around Cable increased noticeably. "I just wasn't concentrating, okay?" he snarled, rising smoothly to his feet and glaring at Alex. "Can we drop the subject of the lamp now?"

Alex bit back the first response that sprang to mind, and glared right back at him through narrowed eyes. "Fine," he gritted, very deliberately staying where he was, sitting on the bed. If it came to a looming contest, he certainly wasn't going to win, so he wasn't even going to bother trying. "Are you--"

"Later," Cable said, almost nervously. Anticipating his question yet again, Alex thought suspiciously. "I'll sleep later. I'm not tired."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "All right," he said very calmly, and without further ado laid back down, squelching the urge to pull the blanket over his head. He reached back into his memory, summoning up the exercises for strengthening one's mental defenses that he'd learned from the Professor, and went through each of them, one by one.

At some point, he heard the door open and close, but by then he was better than half-asleep. When he finally fell the rest of the way down into unconsciousness, his sleep was as troubled as it had been before the aurora had awakened him. He dreamed about being out on the glacier again, with Cable. Only this time, there was something very important that Alex had to tell him.

But Cable just stared off into the distance, a faraway look on his face as if he were listening to distant music, and kept walking forward doggedly, right into the crevasse in front of him. And when Alex ran to the edge to see how far he'd fallen, he realized that it was really the edge of the world, and Cable was gone.

Alex woke up sweating and shaking, tangled in the sheets, to an empty hotel room and the realization that one really shouldn't eat oddly spiced mystery meat sandwiches right before bed.

***

The hotel room was still empty when he woke up again, but it was full light, and Cable's stuff was all still there, so Alex didn't get overly worried. He'd probably just gone down for breakfast or something, Alex reasoned. A note to that effect was taped to the bathroom mirror, he found, once he finally managed to roll out of bed and get ready to face the day.

Breakfast was downstairs, served out on the long terrace that overlooked the fjord. The air was cool, but not uncomfortably so, and now that Alex had shaken off the residual hypothermia, he could appreciate the view. So many vivid colors. The sky was a deeper blue than the water, and the brilliant white of the glaciers and icebergs created a picture-perfect contrast. The browns and grays of the land itself were more subdued, but there were spots of bright green here and there, too. Gardens, maybe?

Behind them, dominating the island on which the hotel sat, was a stunning, almost heart-shaped mountain. Alex got a cup of coffee off the buffet table and stared up at the mountain for a long moment. He was beginning to understand what might draw people here. It was still too damned cold for him, though.

Cable was standing over at the corner of the terrace, leaning on the rail and staring out at the fjord. Watching whales, Alex realized with a strange little thrill as he saw one break through the surface and then crash back into the water.

But his attention shifted inexorably from the whales back to Cable as he got a little closer and saw the tense, strained look on the other man's face. He was gripping the railing hard with one hand, and as Alex watched, he raised the other to his face, rubbing at his forehead as if he had a headache. The tightness around his eyes was a dead giveaway.

"Not a bad view," Alex said casually, coming up beside him. Cable just grunted. The two of them stood there in silence briefly, until Alex decided that he really couldn't think of any more small talk. He sighed, took a sip of his coffee, and asked the inevitable question, since Cable didn't seem inclined to spare him the trouble of saying it aloud this morning. "Are you okay?"

Cable stiffened, and didn't look at him. "I forgot my sunglasses. It's too bright," he said dully, squinting out at the water.

Right. And I'm really a woman trapped in a man's body, Alex thought pointedly. Cable didn't react, and Alex raised an eyebrow. Okay, so either his efforts last night had been successful and he wasn't leaking anymore, or Cable was ignoring him. Why did he think the second was most likely? Alex chewed his lower lip for a long moment as the silence dragged on, and then abruptly decided to go for broke. Why the hell not, after all. "What's at the Thule airbase?" he asked crisply.

Cable didn't even flinch. "It's not AT the airbase," he said, not looking at Alex. "It's near the airbase." The corner of his mouth tugged upwards in a humorless almost-smile. "Some of Logan's old friends."

Well, that was fairly clear. Too clear. A Weapon X facility? Alex thought incredulously. This was what all of this was about--and Cable had been planning to waltz in there on his own? For pity's sake, being a bit reckless was one thing, but this was idiotic. Trying not to grind his teeth, Alex forced himself to respond discreetly, all too aware of the other guests on the terrace with them. "And you were going to, what, go visit them?" he asked as pleasantly as he could. "Have a nice chat over coffee?"

Cable finally turned to him, and Alex gripped his coffee mug very hard, repressing the sudden desire to knock the deadpan look off his nephew's face. "I was thinking more along the lines of a wild party," he said, trying for an innocent tone and failing miserably. "You know, the kind that really brings the house down?"

"Why am I not surprised?" Alex gritted. When had his life turned into a predictably regular series of worst-case scenarios? This was exactly the sort of thing he'd been afraid of, so of course his fears had been justified. After all, the world probably would have come to an end if he'd found out that he'd been worried about nothing and Cable was really here to go ice-fishing or some such thing.

He sighed, relaxing his grip on his mug a little. Time to put up or shut up, he supposed. Briefly, he weighed the importance of getting home and letting everyone know he was alive as soon as possible, versus sticking around for a few days and making sure Cable didn't get himself killed. Put that way, there wasn't much to debate.

Alex set his jaw and met Cable's eyes unflinchingly. "I'm coming with you, you know," he announced calmly.

Cable actually took a step backwards, his eyes widening slightly. "You're doing no such thing!" he snapped. Alex inclined his head in the direction of the other guests, who'd looked around at Cable's outburst, and Cable glared at him, but lowered his voice. "You're not invited," he said, quietly but savagely.

Alex gave him his most irritating smile. "I'm inviting myself," he said pleasantly, but let a warning tone creep into his voice. "And you're going to grin and bear it, pal, or I'm going to go inside to the front desk, place a very long-distance call, and invite the whole family along, too."

Cable was giving him an absolutely murderous look now. It was really quite impressive. "Don't make idle threats," he growled.

"Idle? Who said anything about idle?" He was fully prepared to tattle like a little boy, if that was the only way to get Cable to be reasonable and agree to take him along as back-up. Honestly, he should probably tattle anyway. Two wasn't a whole lot better than one, and a Weapon X facility was liable to be a hard target, to put it mildly.

Cable took a step towards him, menacingly. "You know," he said in a very low, ominous voice, "it might be better all around if you were--convinced that I just had weird taste in vacation spots."

Well. Nothing like upping the nastiness level of the threats being flung around. Alex reminded himself firmly that blasting family members was always to be considered a last resort, and smiled as engagingly as he could at Cable. "Oh, I don't need to be convinced of that," he said easily, and then went on, more seriously. "But if you're going to--go polar bear-watching, common sense suggests having someone along to watch your back so that you don't get mauled." He gave Cable a hard look. "Tell me I'm wrong."

Cable pressed his lips together, giving him an icy look, and Alex sighed. Apparently someone had gone back for a second helping when God had handed out stubborn streaks. Family trait, that one. "Tell me you're absolutely sure you can handle this on your own and I'll take that plane ticket right now and leave you to it," Alex murmured softly, never breaking eye contact.

Cable made a noise that sounded like Logan working up to a full beserker rage, and turned away, staring back out at the fjord. Alex could see the muscles along his jaw rippling, and it was a while before he spoke again. "How much of this is about you not wanting to go home yet?" he asked, his voice gone back to that neutral, almost indifferent tone. If Alex listened carefully, though, he could hear the tension beneath the surface.

"Quite a bit," Alex admitted freely, not seeing any reason to try and hide the selfish portion of his motivations. He could try, but chances were that Cable would see right through him anyway. "But it's also about me not wanting to have to explain to your father that I left you here to get eaten by polar bears."

Cable shot him an aggravated look. "Would you stop it with the polar bears already? Talk about beating a metaphor to death." Alex shrugged in response, and Cable muttered something unintelligible under his breath. "Fine," he muttered at last. Alex wasn't surprised. If he'd been going to lie about feeling confident that he could handle things on his own, he would have done it as soon as Alex had challenged him. "Consider yourself invited. But we do it my way, and you do as I say. If you've got questions, save them for the chopper ride home. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly," Alex said firmly. He had no problem with letting Cable call the shots, although he would of course reserve the right to intervene if the other man's good judgement showed any signs of heading south to get away from the cold. "Family bonding over some good destructive fun. It's a fine Summers tradition." Cable snorted, looking away, and Alex smiled blithely out at the gorgeous view. "So," he said in a chipper voice, "do you speak whale?"

"Do I what?" Cable demanded, giving him a look that made it clear he questioned Alex's sanity, just a little.

"You know, whale. Do you understand what they're saying?" Alex pointed helpfully at the whales that were still visible, although clearly heading for open water.

Cable's eyes narrowed. "Actually, yes," he said thinly. "They're saying 'Throw the puny blond one over the edge into the water, Nathan. Do it. You know you want to.'"

"You have a bizarre sense of humor," Alex observed cheerfully, and raised his mug in salute. Only then did he notice Cable didn't have one of his own. "No coffee?" he asked, surprised.

Cable's mouth quirked. "I'm trying to break the addiction."

Alex slapped a hand over his heart and staggered backwards. "What?" he demanded theatrically. "Are you sure I'm in the right dimension?"

"Oh, shut up."

to be continued...

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[FOOTER]