(Untitled)

[nostoppinglife]

Moira MacTaggert has endured more than a few strange situations. She's greeted visitors from the future, watched her own son turn Edinburgh inside out, traveled within the mindscape of a schizophrenic, and she has managed it all with as much dignity as she could muster at the time. There have been too many mistakes to recount and hurts she thought

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[faithanbegorrah]

If Terry's going to keep running into new but familiar faces in the kitchen, she might consider camping out in the room until the ones she truly wishes she could see again show up.

As it is, she can't get much more of a shock when she walks in, looks up from unzipping her coat and sees Moira standing there as though she's been around all along and Terry's just noticed her.

She stops in her tracks, eyes wide as a million things go through her mind, most prominent of which concern her father. Moira doesn't look much different from when Terry last saw her -- when she was still alive -- and that can only mean she knows her father.

And he won't know her.

"Moira?"

[nostoppinglife]

Moira's only just starting to get used to the fact that Rahne's several years older than when she saw her last. Adding Terry Cassidy to the list of people who've grown up in what feels like only a few hours' time is a little disheartening. Even prepared by Rahne for the notion that the others are a few years past her time, it takes her a few moments to realize it's Terry at all.

"Terry," she says warmly, stepping toward her, "Rahne told me ye were here. Lord, ye've all gone and grown up on me."

[faithanbegorrah]

Despite not having been as close to Moira as Jamie or Rahne had been, Terry can't say it isn't good to see her. She'd given her a home for the short time she'd been on Muir Island, and she'd meant the world to her father. Anyone of those reasons alone would be enough.

Mostly, it's good to see Moira alive again.

"That's what happens when time passes," she says, breaking into a pleased smile before walking over to give Moira a hug. "Saints, it's been an age. It's good to see ye."

Focusing on the good for now is all Terry really wants to do. The bad can wait.

[nostoppinglife]

Moira laughs a little, less amused than pleased as she returns the hug. It's been stressful, the last few days, more than usually so, and being here ought to make that truer still. Instead, though, she simply finds herself grateful that, if she's to be stuck here a while, she's got familiar faces around to make it more pleasant. Accustomed though she is to being on her own, she'd prefer not to go this one alone.

"And ye as well, lass," she says, smiling as she steps back and looks her over, still taken aback to see little Terry more than half her own age. "I was just makin' some coffee. Sit a spell, tell me what I've missed."

[risesagain]

There are a lot of things that Jean expects to find in the kitchen. More coffee to refill the empty mug that she's been carrying around with her like a safety blanket for the last few hours. Pie is another thing as well as any number of other baked goods.

Moira MacTaggert doesn't even make the top fifty.

Gripping her mug a little tighter, she openly stares at the supposedly dead woman. Supposedly is the key word as Moira looks anything but dead.

"Oh my," she says a smile slowly creeping onto her face. "Moira?"

[nostoppinglife]

Between the way Rahne keeps sneaking glances at her and Jean's stare, Moira's hoping that it's just been a long time since they've seen her, because it's beginning to feel like she must have missed a lot. Still, it's hard to feel anything but pleased to see Jean, her smile pushing away most of the nerves that threaten to overtake Moira at the sight of her. What happened with Magneto and the Acolytes might be fresh for her, but Jean hardly looks like a woman who hasn't forgiven her.

Turning toward her, she nods, managing a smile of her own. "Aye, it's me," she says. "Hello, Jean darlin'. Rahne told me I'd find ye here somewhere."

[risesagain]

Of all of their former teammates and otherwise on the island, Jean is the one with the least amount of right to throw stones. Her own glass house has more than a few visible cracks.

Rushing over from her place in the entrance, she barely gives her mug a second glance as she drops it onto the table. It's the most natural thing in the world when she gives Moira a hug. There might be no sense of time here, but the fact that Moira helped her is timeless.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you. I hope Rahne has been giving you the decent showaround."

[nostoppinglife]

Moira's smile grows wider, more genuine, as she wraps her arms around Jean in kind. She's always had a soft spot for the girl -- same, true, as she's had for all the children she's helped, but Jean is and has always been a special one.

"She's been lovely and helpful as always," she assures Jean. "Though it doesnae seem there's much to show. I'm glad t'see there's a few familiar faces around the place." Even ones she's betrayed of late.

[howmanylives]

In some ways, Jamie Madrox had come a long way since his days on Muir Island. In some ways, Jamie Madrox had actually grown up. He had a better haircut, for one, though his fashion sense hadn't much improved. He was still quick with a joke, but silences were no longer oppressively uncomfortable. He had died and he had lived and then he had died and lived some more. He had traveled. He had gone to school. He had worked for both the government and for God. For a while, he'd even worked for himself -- quite the achievement, really, for the self-designated comic relief

[nostoppinglife]

Moira glanced over at the young man as he approached, brow raising as he went from being vaguely familiar to someone she knew. Between Rahne and Jamie, she was beginning to feel older than her years, seeing the children she'd helped to raise grow up nearly in the blink of an eye. She'd known him since he was a boy but there was no doubting he was a man grown now, and though Rahne had warned her that this was the case with a few of them, there was a world of difference between knowing it and seeing it.

"Tryin' t' get a decent cup o' coffee," she said wryly, then couldn't hold back a smile any longer. "Has it been so long ye dinnae know me anymore, Jamie Madrox? Am I so forgettable as that?"

[howmanylives]

Jamie let out a breath he hadn't quite realized he'd been holding, an almost manic laugh escaping his throat. It had been a long time, to be sure, but not nearly long enough to have forgotten her. Xavier might have returned to Jamie his mind, but Moira had given him something much more important -- family. For an orphan, few things mattered more.

A palpable sense of relief washed over him. There was no crying in noir -- and he stood by that, regardless of any recent breakdowns on his part -- but it had to be said that the genre wasn't exactly known for its joyful reunions. It would have been more fitting if she had been a doppelgänger, a cruel twist of fate for the erstwhile Multiple Man, but maybe it was glitch upstairs, that something so overwhelmingly positive could happen for him after so much tragedy. His face broke into a wide smile, and he closed the distance between them with a speed worthy of Pietro, enveloping her in a tight embrace.

"Moira!" he exclaimed. "Thank God, it's actually you."

[nostoppinglife]

Moira laughed, startled into it as she hugged Jamie back. It was still bewildering, admittedly, the feeling that she must have been gone a long time to warrant these reactions. It had been a while even at home since she'd last seen Jamie, though, and more powerful than how sorry she was for her absence and how much she'd missed was simple gratitude. Strange though this place was, ready though she'd been to be all on her own, it was a relief to have bits of her family here.

"It's actually me," she agreed. "Who else, lad? Look at ye, goin' and growin' up when I've nae been lookin'."

[missingthekeep]

The island's winter transformation had done a sound job of leaving Sean feeling out of sorts, although the reprieve from all the heat and sunshine is too welcome for him to automatically write the month off completely. Still, the bad storybook wonderland look of things leaves him feeling positively Grinch-like in comparison, like he should be going around kicking over decorations just to keep up appearances, and the memory of what happened last year and the five steps back his life had taken as a result leaves him with even more of a sense of dread than usual, wondering just what the hell the snow's going to bring with it this time around

[nostoppinglife]

"Sugar," Moira replies automatically, still leaning against the counter. It's the voice she recognizes first and that's enough to make her glance over at the man who's spoken -- the young man, terribly young, but she suspects she knows him all the same. That suspicion alone is enough so to make something twist in her gut. Looking at him now -- and she can't turn her gaze away, embarrassing though that is -- she's not sure she would have recognized him at all if Rahne hadn't warned her. Words, though, she realizes now, were far from enough to prepare her for this.

It seems foolish to be upset, losing a man she just walked out on, but she'd meant that to be temporary. More than that, she'd left him knowing just who she is and what she's meant to him, and now she can't even bring herself to ask and be sure this is really Sean Cassidy at all. Lord, he can't be even thirty yet. "Thank ye," she adds, stilted, dredging up the ghost of a smile. "I'm afraid I dinnae know where anythin's kept yet."

[missingthekeep]

Sean smiles at the accent, though the way she's looking at him gives him pause. It's brief, though, nothing so strange as to bother making note of, especially when considering that she's apparently just as new as he'd guessed. "Aye, figgered ye f'r a fresh face 'round these parts," he says, fetching her the sugar and a spoon before grabbing himself a mug. "If ye're anythin' like me, coffee'll be one o' the first things ye'll get a handle on."

[nostoppinglife]

After the day she's had, Moira would rather leave now than stay and get a handle on anything. She's drained from all she's been through as it is, but she's run once already today and it's come to this. Trying again hardly seems promising.

"I think it may well be a while before I get a handle on anythin' else," she admits with a wry smile, distractedly stirring the sugar into her cup. She's faced more than few terrible things in her life, madmen and monsters. A little heartbreak's nothing new, nothing to bolt from, and there's no good in getting upset when she doesn't yet have all the facts. Doing her best to pull herself together, she offers her hand. "I'm Moira."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

Cable had lost a lot of people during his life and had a lot of bad days and, in all honesty, Moira's death hadn't been anywhere near the worse. But that didn't mean it hadn't registered at all

[nostoppinglife]

Moira smiled, her own a little wider but no less genuine as she nodded to him. She wouldn't have expected anything more from Cable, unoffended by the lukewarm reception. Besides, she was occupied in observing the changes, noting how he'd aged, too, as Rahne had. It seemed strange, that everyone should be from so much in her future -- but then, of course, Cable always had been. Somehow it was unsurprising to run into him here, and certainly he was more welcome a sight than some of the others now, after all she'd just left.

"Hello yuirself," she said. "Rahne told me I might be seein' ye about."

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"I'm a hard man to miss," he replied lightly. "Though this time there isn't a helpful mob to help point me out."

[nostoppinglife]

"Ye've a tendency to stand out as it is," Moira pointed out with a wry smile. "Even here, I'd imagine, strange though I'm given to understand the place is. But we can do without the mob this time."