[debut]

[nostoppinglife]

They've begged her to stay, Charles and Sean have, and between the two of them, it's almost impossible to refuse. In her way, Moira's loved them both and she hates to tell them no, but it's not the simple matter they seem to think it is, staying here. Everyone knows, every last person in the mansion knows what happened up there, that it's all her

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[tearsthrulife]

It's almost funny, how quickly things can change, how easily any progress can be undone, except that it really isn't at all. Rahne has spent days now keeping to herself, holed up in some abandoned hut because she'd never bothered to get her own and she doesn't want anyone to know just how bad it really is, that she barely sleeps at night and when she does, she wakes up a mess, haunted by visions of what she'd seen in the snow and what she had done to cause it. For a while, she had managed to almost let go of it. It only figures that this place would have wanted to change that.

Too restless to sit still, sick of pacing some sickeningly cheery little cabin but unwilling to be around other people, either. She can't deal with what she imagines she'd be facing if she were to come across any of her friends -- concern, certainly, but with fear behind it. And maybe they should be afraid. They've seen what she is, what she could do, and there isn't anything good about it

[nostoppinglife]

As if Moira needed any further cause for guilt, it takes her a few long moments to recognize the girl before her. Logically she knows she shouldn't feel badly for that -- this is hardly a girl at all, more a young woman, older and certainly more fully human in appearance than her Rahne was when she saw her last. And yet there she is. Once it's sunk in, there's no mistaking her: a few years older, surely, near a woman grown, but Rahne Sinclair all the same, standing in the snow with a look on her face like she's seen something in the dark and needs Moira to sit with her until she falls asleep

[tearsthrulife]

Seeing Moira there -- or really just thinking she's seeing her -- doesn't even begin to compare to what it feels like knowing it's actually her, that this isn't just her mind playing tricks or worse, some lookalike. Nothing short of incredulous, Rahne shakes her head a little, unsure if what she wants is to laugh or cry or both. It leaves her faltering for a moment, but for the first time in days, there's something resembling a smile on her face.

"It's taken a few years," she says, trying her best to sound casual but looking no less stunned. She can see it now, this close, that Moira's younger than she'd been at the end, and time's passed since then, too. What it means is that there's a whole lot for her to tell, but she doesn't yet know where to start and she doesn't care to, either. Right now, just having Moira there is enough. "As for why, I - I should probably take ye inside somewhere to explain all this, it isn't exactly simple. Lord, I can't believe ye're really here."

[nostoppinglife]

"Ye can't mean --" Working with the X-Men, Moira's seen and done some unbelievable things in her time, and she knows full well that time's a tricky thing. She's known people to appear from hundreds of years in the future and from alternate timelines, and wee Illyana grew so quickly during her time in that other realm. It's bewildering to think of anything of the sort happening to Rahne. There's a strange relief in it, however, ashamed of it though she is. At least she's not been so terrible a mother as her panic let her believe for a moment there. And if nothing else, Rahne is one person she's not failed as she failed the X-Men.

But there's snow seeping in over the tops of her shoes and sense in what Rahne says. "Inside might be best, aye," she agrees reluctantly. She's in no hurry to return after so dramatic an exit -- but then, she thinks, is she even in the same place at all? It seems unlikely. "But inside where?"