27
ROUND TWENTY-SEVEN
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“I can’t do it,” Scott snarled, yanking out the ear-piece and throwing it across the room.
“Can’t do what?” asked Hope, looking up from her book and frowning slightly at the flying ear-piece.
“Antony. The others. I can’t- they won’t listen to me anymore.”
Hope got out of the armchair and went over to stand behind Scott’s, and started rubbing his shoulders. It felt good, and Scott sighed in appreciation, unconsciously leaning into her touch, willing himself to relax.
The vitriol in his voice decreased somewhat, he explained. “I’ve tried different exercises, even going back to the basics-from training, you know?” She nodded in reply and made attentive sounds but otherwise let him speak. “I start out okay, but before too long the ants lose cohesiveness and just start moving around randomly. Not even their own patterns, either, if left to their own devices. No, it’s more random than that, more chaotic.”
He sighed, and closed his eyes. After a while he continued, softer now, resigned. “You’re going to have to take over. The Ant-Man gig. Between the blackouts and now this, I think I can’t keep doing this, not with how things are right now.”
“I know.” She said kindly, in reply. “Wasp-the suit-is ready. Dad and I have been talking. He stepped up the last bits of R&D on the new Wasp suit, and it’s ready to go-”
“Since last week,” Scott said, somewhat distracted.
“-since… yeah,” she said, a beat behind him, an odd tone to the last word. Her more normal voice back, she continued. “So we’ll miss you out there, but don’t worry, we’ll take care of things while you get this figured out.
Scott half nodded and looked away in frustration in self-loathing. “Scott,” Hope said sharply, grasping his head and turning it to look directly at her. “Hear me. We’ll get this figured out: Dad, you, and I, and we’ll get you back out there. It’ll be both of us then, working together, like we’ve been wanting. Okay?”
He nodded slowly, a bit more genuine this time around, “Okay,” he replied, and gave a small, sad smile and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. “Yeah. We can figure this out. Thanks, Hope.”
She smiled and bent down, kissing his forehead.
“That’s my girl,” heard Scott, softly. “She’s right, you know.” He was just glad Hope had her eyes closed, so she couldn’t see the flicker of an expression cross his face.
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