Happy birthday, girls

[geniusmccoy]

Henry had barely slept last night, weird dreams about the many ways in which the girls' birthday could go wrong, including an aggressive unicorn. And he hadn't even planned anything involving unicorns, not even decorations

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[spinonmyturret]

Rebecca felt Henry get up but she was exhausted and rolled over, falling back to sleep instantly.

When her alarm finally went off, she dragged herself out of bed and towards the bathroom. The door was closed and she tapped at it.

"Love? Let me in, I need to shower if I'm going to face today with anything remotely resembling coherence." She said, leaning on the wood.

[spinonmyturret]

She clenched her jaw against a swell of emotion. Mutated? It wasn't something he'd had to deal with for a while, even his animal instincts weren't something he was worried about any more. They'd both incorporated them into their lives so much that it wasn't an issue. But this...this was something they'd never actually faced.

On her hip, Eve was sleepily grizzling and Rebecca kissed her hair. "I'm taking the girls upstairs and I'm going to see if they want a story and a nap." She said through the door. "But then I'm coming back." She added, walking up the stairs.

In the end it took over an hour to get the girls to sleep and then another twenty minutes for Rebecca to walk the hallway and actually realise that she wasn't going to be let into the lab. The picks were in her hand before she realised she'd gone to get them and now she was standing outside the door wondering what she'd find inside.

[geniusmccoy]

"Rebecca. . I'm not - this isn't something you want to see."

She was already gone, and he felt so much relief that it made his knees buckle. He wasn't going to be able to keep her away much longer, and - oh, they had to cancel the party, their visitors. He - he could do that. While waiting for the marrow results.

After saying goodbye to Jean, Henry was pretty sure he heard something at the door. "Rebecca?" He moved closer to the door, hands up, lab coat tattered around him. "I could be close to a solution, just - just think of yourself first."

[spinonmyturret]

"You're not going to hurt me." That above everything else made her set her jaw and put her picks to work on the lock. It was a complex lock but she wasn't about to quit when he was trying to shut her out.

"And you don't get to tell me what I will and won't want to see." She said as the tumblers lined up. "You're my husband and-..." The lock clicked and the handle fell. "I get to decide-... what the fuck?"

She fell immediately into a defensive stance, subconscious reaction taking over before she could stop it. She'd seen this person before and cognitive dissonance was hitting her hard. Suddenly they were back in that wasteland, post-apocalyptic dustbowl. Rebecca sitting in the back of a truck, boots out in front of her as she talked to a huge blue beast. the same blue creature that was standing in front of her.

Henry.

"Shit." She said, picks still in her fingers.

[geniusmccoy]

He backed away from her, hands still up, until he walked into a wall. "When are you ever going to realise that you don't always make the same decisions, woman?"

Look at her, already ready to attack. He told himself to keep his hands up, to be the littlest threat possible. "I don't know what happened. I woke up like this, and I can't find anything wrong internally. Nor do I think it's an illusion, seeing your reaction to me."

"Shit, yes. That could be the word for it."

[spinonmyturret]

"Henry...." It was his voice, a little deeper but unmistakably him.

Rebecca closed her eyes for a second and the memory of the blue furred creature in the van, the way he'd talked...He must have known.

"You knew." She said, anger rising in place of fear. "You bloody knew it was me, back then, in that alternate place. And you didn't say anything?" She said. "All these years, that was you and you let me think you were dead in that place instead?"

[geniusmccoy]

At first Henry didn't even recognize what she was talking about. There were no screams or attacks and he lowered his hands until the penny dropped.

Yes, he had been like this before. But that had been another dimension. Did he have to look into dimension travel? Was he swapped?
"Erm." Because he knew he had to say something by now. "I called the few guests we had invited and cancelled on them. Not for the real reason of course, except for Jean."

[spinonmyturret]

Rebecca gave him a look and lifted her chin. That wasn't going to be good enough.

"Good. That means you've got a whole lot of time to explain why you lied to me for the last decade." She said, emphasising the point with a step closer.

[geniusmccoy]

"Last decade? Rebecca, this happened this morning. Or after going to sleep last night, I didn't wake during the night so I can't be sure."

He wanted to take a step back but there was no room. "I don't know if it's contagious, Rebecca. We can't do that to the girls."

[spinonmyturret]

"You know what I mean. I've seen you like this before and you had to know it was me when we met in that place." She said, crossing her arms. "And don't use the girls as an excuse to hide. You know this isn't contagious but they have your DNA and mine. If this is going to happen to them we will not be hiding them."

[geniusmccoy]

"This isn't going to happen to them. Ever." Henry would do whatever necessary. "I'm sure these are external creations. I'm not in puberty any more, and too young for penopause. So it's magic or an illusion or ..I'm not going to live like this for another day, Rebecca."

He side stepped her to open the door. "I just need you to look out for the girls for one day."

[spinonmyturret]

Rebecca stepped back away from the door and into the room, shaking her head.

"They're sleeping." She said. "They're fine. You're not. I'm mad." She took a breath and blew it out. "But I'm letting it go, so tell me how I can help." She looked up at him, searching his face, eyes finding his and seeing the man she knew inside. "Henry..."

[geniusmccoy]

"Mad? What are you supposed to be mad about? You think I did this to myself in some way? I wanted to keep this from you until it was fixed, this is supposed to be the girls' day."

She was making him so angry right now, which worried him. "It seems like I'm fine", he muttered. "Maybe the outside is finally matching the inside. We'd have to start thinking about what we'll do if this lasts. I'm sure professor Xavier has a room for me."

[spinonmyturret]

"I'm mad that I could have known this for years and we could have prepared at least!" She threw back and stepped up to him. "And don't even start talking about leaving us. You don't get to punk out because your mutation is playing up."

[geniusmccoy]

"Prepare? You expected something like this to be a possibility? And play up? Play up?"
That meant she felt like this was truly him, instead of a temporary mistake. "Get out. I need to fix this. If it can appear over twenty four hours, it can disappear. The girls won't even have to know. Just let me work on this, and we don't even have to make a point of this."

[spinonmyturret]

"I won't get out." Rebecca said, standing her ground in the face of his understandable anger. "You're my husband and I'm not leaving you." She put down the monitor and sat on his stool. "Blue furred or not you're stuck with me so you might as well use me."