Sugar Magnolia
Title: Sugar Magnolia
Author: K Marie
Rating: PG - 13 for character death
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Three years, and she went home.
Spoilers: for X3.
Author's Note: Prompt was Movieverse Rogue and sugar magnolia. I didn't know there was a song by that name till I googled it. Great big huge thanks to technosage for the major beta work. Love ya.
She went home. Three years, and she went home.
Answer to her mother's prayers. Her father was so thrilled that the very night she got home they went out to eat at the expensive steak house in downtown Meridian. They talked about everything she had missed while she was gone, as if they had chosen for her to go to an expensive boarding school in New York.
No one said a word about the white streak. Or that the school she'd been at was for "mutant freaks" like she'd been.
***
"Marie? There's someone on the phone. He says his name is Bobby. He wants to talk to you."
"I got it, Momma," she said after she picked up the phone in her room. Sitting on her bed, she took a deep breath. "Hi, Bobby."
"So you're there now. Now that you're not a freak?" His voice got louder, sounding angry; it hit her like a blow to the belly and made her want to curl her arms around herself.
"I needed to see them. I haven't been here in three years. I missed them," she said, her accent drawling out, nervous energy showing itself in her voice.
"But did they miss you enough to try and find you when you where here?"
"They tried Bobby, they did."
"And when Xavier called them, did they even care enough to talk to you then? Or did they just decide that their freak of a daughter was better off?"
"That's not fair. I didn't want to talk to them either. Do you know what it's like growing up down here? I still know people - in my own family, Bobby - who say black people are going to ruin the neighborhood. What do you think they'd do to someone like us? I didn't have a choice. It was as much to protect them as to protect myself."
He was quiet for several minutes before he said, "Hank's going to be on television tonight. Watch the news."
***
"We are becoming aware of a side effect of the ‘mutant cure’ that was not known before."
Mr. McCoy paused, and the newspeople started yelling questions. He held his hands up, and they quieted down.
"This side effect is irreversible. If you or someone you know has taken the cure, please seek immediate medical attention. Stop watching this broadcast. Go now to your local hospital."
***
She didn't watch the news that night. Neither did her parents.
The next morning, when her mother came in to wake her up, she stared at the bed and screamed.
Her father came rushing in, started shaking her shoulders, and screaming "Marie! Marie!"
It was no use.
***
Her funeral was small with a large number of people that no one knew standing to one side. Her grandmother whispered to her aunt, and her cousins pointed and stared. The students and teachers from Xavier's were used to such behavior and simply mourned their friend.
Afterwards, a boy, almost a man, stood by her grave alone.
"I'm sorry.” His voice was quiet, small, like he was on the verge of tears; her younger cousin Alice thought that he was telling her he loved her. “I should have told you myself."
And then he left her alone with the sugar magnolias.
Author: K Marie
Rating: PG - 13 for character death
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Three years, and she went home.
Spoilers: for X3.
Author's Note: Prompt was Movieverse Rogue and sugar magnolia. I didn't know there was a song by that name till I googled it. Great big huge thanks to technosage for the major beta work. Love ya.
She went home. Three years, and she went home.
Answer to her mother's prayers. Her father was so thrilled that the very night she got home they went out to eat at the expensive steak house in downtown Meridian. They talked about everything she had missed while she was gone, as if they had chosen for her to go to an expensive boarding school in New York.
No one said a word about the white streak. Or that the school she'd been at was for "mutant freaks" like she'd been.
***
"Marie? There's someone on the phone. He says his name is Bobby. He wants to talk to you."
"I got it, Momma," she said after she picked up the phone in her room. Sitting on her bed, she took a deep breath. "Hi, Bobby."
"So you're there now. Now that you're not a freak?" His voice got louder, sounding angry; it hit her like a blow to the belly and made her want to curl her arms around herself.
"I needed to see them. I haven't been here in three years. I missed them," she said, her accent drawling out, nervous energy showing itself in her voice.
"But did they miss you enough to try and find you when you where here?"
"They tried Bobby, they did."
"And when Xavier called them, did they even care enough to talk to you then? Or did they just decide that their freak of a daughter was better off?"
"That's not fair. I didn't want to talk to them either. Do you know what it's like growing up down here? I still know people - in my own family, Bobby - who say black people are going to ruin the neighborhood. What do you think they'd do to someone like us? I didn't have a choice. It was as much to protect them as to protect myself."
He was quiet for several minutes before he said, "Hank's going to be on television tonight. Watch the news."
***
"We are becoming aware of a side effect of the ‘mutant cure’ that was not known before."
Mr. McCoy paused, and the newspeople started yelling questions. He held his hands up, and they quieted down.
"This side effect is irreversible. If you or someone you know has taken the cure, please seek immediate medical attention. Stop watching this broadcast. Go now to your local hospital."
***
She didn't watch the news that night. Neither did her parents.
The next morning, when her mother came in to wake her up, she stared at the bed and screamed.
Her father came rushing in, started shaking her shoulders, and screaming "Marie! Marie!"
It was no use.
***
Her funeral was small with a large number of people that no one knew standing to one side. Her grandmother whispered to her aunt, and her cousins pointed and stared. The students and teachers from Xavier's were used to such behavior and simply mourned their friend.
Afterwards, a boy, almost a man, stood by her grave alone.
"I'm sorry.” His voice was quiet, small, like he was on the verge of tears; her younger cousin Alice thought that he was telling her he loved her. “I should have told you myself."
And then he left her alone with the sugar magnolias.