If I Only Had a Heart....OTA

[hunteroffreaks]

Bored was a dangerous state of mind to be in when you were a mutant hunter. It meant that either your mind was getting sloppy and slowing down, or that there hadn't been anything to do in a while. In Jack's case, it was the later. Granted, he had 'visited' Victor in his cell, and while he had come away with an extremely bruised throat out of the

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[slightproblem]

The last week or so, Olivia had been in hiding. She spent time in her room when she could, when Jean wasn't there with Logan. If the lovebirds were in, she avoided them, finding quiet places to read or to just sit and think. She'd all but given up on meditation. It hadn't been helping. She was just awful at it.

Mostly she thought about the fact that she felt out of place here. These were soldiers, fighters with unique abilities. She couldn't do anything that someone else couldn't. She was useless in a fight and completely not cut out for this.

On one of her rare sojourns out of her room, she was walking past the rec room when she heard a familiar line. Pausing, she opened the door and stepped inside to lean against the door, her lips pulling into a small smile.

The Wizard of Oz. She hadn't seen it since she was a girl. Her eyes flickered over to the man sitting on the couch and she gave a wider grin before she turned back to watch the television.

[hunteroffreaks]

Olivia was one of the few mutants Jack could tolerate, and he was glad to see her. The last time they had talked was when she had told him about what Victor had done to her. Well, he had gotten his in the end, Jack had seen to that.

He had developed a protective sort of feeling for her. She just seemed so damn helpless. He nodded in her general direction as Olivia stood back like a wallflower. He turned down the volume just a tad.

"Siddown and stay a while."

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Olivia inclined her head, seeming to consider for a moment before she pushed off of the wall and moved over to the couch. She gave Jack a small smile and sat down, folding her hands in her lap before she sighed and looked him over. There was a bruise on his throat. Faded, but still there. Concern lined her brow as she frowned.

"Every time I see you, you seem to have another bruise. Are you alright?"

[hunteroffreaks]

"It's a given with me. I can't seem to go more than a week without an injury. As for this?" His fingers lightly brushed his throat. The bruise mirrored the now faded ones that had been on Olivia's own throat. The ghost of a smile came to Jack's face.

"You should have seen the other guy." It wasn't idle humor on Jack's part. When he said something like that, it usually meant the other guy was dead. Victor may not have been a corpse lying somewhere, but having a gaping hole in his shoulder definitely qualified as him coming off worse.

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"You get into quite a few fights." she remarked, a little worry in her tone. Jack had been kind to her and, despite his reputation, he'd never gone out of his way to make her feel unwelcome for being what she was. She looked over the bruises again and then his smile.

"I see. Well, I'm rather glad that you won, then." She was quiet for a moment after before she leaned back into the couch, her eyes settling on the movie. Reaching up, she pushed a stray curl from her face and smiled as a song began.

[hunteroffreaks]

"It's a bad habit I've never broken." His tone was dry, but his words sounded lighter than they normally were. It was like he couldn't go a week or two without deliberately seeking out bodily harm. A masochist's dream job, he thought to himself.

He briefly thought of telling her just who it had been he was brawling with, but Olivia had been trying to put her ordeal behind her. He sat there for a few minutes before turning towards her again. "Which is your favorite character?" It was genuine curiosity. Plus, he had found that it was a bit of a litmus test of personality, seeing which one of the main four they most identified with.

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"I think we all have those." she answered. "Just, some of our habits are a little less dangerous." She flashed him a wry smirk.

"My favorite?" The smirk faded as she gave him a half-sunny smile. "Dorothy." A small town girl who's whisked away into a world she can hardly comprehend with people who want to harm her simply for being different? That one was a given. She just doubted she'd get any ruby shoes to be able to leave.

"There really is no place like home. I miss it." she sighed, her face showing her sadness once again. She didn't fit here. She never would. She wasn't hard enough.

[hunteroffreaks]

"I should take up stamp collecting." He answered back. If Jack ever did, he thought he might just shoot himself in the foot from the bordom of it all.

Dorothy suited Olivia to a T. She certainly was a fish out of water amongst the murderers and assassins that made up the majority of the camp's population. "Mine is the Tin Man." A man with no heart, it seemed appropriate. He just chose to ignore the fact that the Tin Man himself was seeking out a heart to feel emotions with.

Jack shrugged. Olivia had been saying that almost from the moment she had arrived. "Hey, you ever want to leave, just say the word. After all you've been through, Stryker won't deny you that."

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"Stamp collecting?" she laughed. "I'm sorry, I just can't see it." Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the film for a moment, the colors faded and the picture a little snowy. Just like everything in Russia.

"The Tin Man?" she asked, thinking for a moment. "Do you really think you don't have a heart, Jack?" She didn't believe it. He'd been too kind to her to not have some caring, even if it was deep inside.

"I keep thinking that maybe, somehow, I need this. That I need to go through this to be a better, stronger person." Her shoulders sagged as she turned her gaze back down to her hands and picked at her fingernails. "But then I just get tired. Like...maybe I'm fooling myself."

[hunteroffreaks]

"Damn." He got up, going over and rapping on the TV with his knuckles. The picture didn't change. It might not have been the most effective method, but it made him feel like he was doing something.

Jack didn't answer or look up at Olivia. He didn't think, he knew. There was just an lump of ice left where his heart used to be. But there was no way he would say that out loud. "Maybe." His eyes grew humorous. "Or maybe I just like the idea of carrying around an ax."

Giving up, Jack sat back down. Pep talks were not his strong suit. "You're overthinking it all. If you're meant to do this, something'll happen. If not, the message will get through with an anvil sized hint."

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"It's better than staring at the wall." she said, amusement lifting her eyes as she smiled. There was that pause and she felt sad again. Sad for what was happening to the people here, how hard they'd seemed to become. Then again, perhaps they'd been this way all along and she was just the odd one out. "I'm sure that's it, though I'm not sure you'd get into any less fights carrying an axe." she chuckled.

Curling up against the arm of the couch, she drew her legs up and turned to face him. She had to nod. He had a point. "You're right. I am just over-thinking things. There's more to life than just comfort, after all." she gave him a brief smile. "Though cable television and heaters might be nice."