Book Two - Part One: Spectre

The borrowed car pulls up outside of a faded white farmhouse. It was a long drive. 17 hours to be precise. 17 long nerve wracking hours. But Ross has no reason to look for them in the State, or driving cross country in a car to a farm. Bruce climbs out first, his eyes drawn to the house. It's traditional, on a small patch of land, nothing about it seems out of the ordinary, except the mutant that lives there. Or once lived there. It's rundown. Could use some love. This could have been his future with her. The house. The quiet. The peace. Maybe...eventually....children. This could have been theirs. But that's not how life turned out. Bruce turns to Laurie as she pulls their bags from the car.

"I've got them" he assures her and lets her lean back against the car. She looks a little pale but he knows she's felt a little nauseous, he blames the sandwich she ate at the gas station that had seen better days. He has this thing about eating gas station food, which is ridiculous considering he's spent years on the run, but he learned the hard way when it came to what foods to eat and which to steer clear of.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom" she mumbles and pushes herself away from the car and heads towards the house. Bruce watches her worried. Food poisoning is no joke and now isn't exactly the best time for her to go through it. Not with everything else happening around them. He shakes his head a little and reaches into the trunk for the bags Jean and Scott had set them up with. When this is over, he should find a way to thank them for their help, he knows they did it for Laurie, but...still.

..............

Laurie's barely been to the house since Lawrence's death, she couldn't bear it, so she moved into the school and left the house alone, only coming back and forth to get her things and to finalize the sale to Tony. Of course, now that means that much of her marital belongings are still here along with layers of dust. She opens the bathroom cabinet and cringes at all the out of date medical supplies along with a box of out of date pregnancy tests. her eyes linger on them slightly. They're from when she and Lawrence were attempting to have a family, it's what eventually lead to her being miserable in her marriage. But.... she grabs the box and pulls it closer. This is not possible. She takes a breath and thinks. It was never even a consideration for her. She'd given up the prospect of children years ago, assumed she couldn't get pregnant at all. All those years with Lawrence, all that time with Bruce and she never even had a scare. But everything makes sense. All of her recent things. Nausea and sickness. Tiredness. And yes, she missed a period....But all of that can be put down to stress as well.

"Laurel?" Bruce asks knocking on the bathroom door. "You okay?" she holds the back of her hand over her mouth to stop herself crying as she leans back against the wall with a sigh. She takes a breath through her nose and lowers her hand.

"Yeah" she answers. "Yeah, just...shouldn't have eaten that gas station sandwich" She can't tell him, not yet, not until she is sure, there is no point in worrying him if this is all in her head. If she isn't she doesn't want to add on more stress, not right now, not with everything happening.

"I did warn you" he tells her softly. "Let me in"

"No" she argues. "No, It's okay, Bruce....I'm fine, I'll out in a second" she takes a breath and sets the box back into the cabinet. It's out of date so she needs a fresh one if she wants to test....to prove or disprove this theory. And she's not even sure how she feels about it yet. Get the results. No sense in freaking out if there is nothing to freak out over. She takes another breath and then unlocks the bathroom door. Bruce leans against the wall outside, his hair all fluffy where he's run his fingers through it, concerned. She gives him a small smile. He pushes away from the wall and steps closer to her.

"You do look pale" he admits pressing his hand to her cheek. "Why don't you take a nap?" he asks softly. "I'll see about finding some food" she shakes her head.

"There won't be any" she tells him. "I haven't been here in years, I should go to the store...."

"Are you sure you're okay to go?" he asks concerned, she nods.

"Yeah, I'll go to the pharmacy when I'm out pick up something for my stomach" she kisses his cheek. "I'll only be an hour" he threads his fingers with hers and nods. "It's probably a mix of...stress and that sandwich" he nods, it makes sense. The last few days have been stressful on both of them, and he was worried about the toll it would take on him, he should have been worried about her. But she's always seemed so strong, so unbeatable. He's never seen her sick before. He strokes her arms as she snuggles into his chest with a deep breath, her fingers curling into his shirt.

.................

Laurie pulls off her jacket once she is in the car, she'd uncovered the old beat up pick up from the shed and opted to use that instead, leaving the other car just in case Bruce needs it, she hopes he won't, but she's not going to leave him without an exit if he does. She throws the jacket onto the seat beside her before threading her fingers through her hair. She doesn't know how to feel about the possibility of a pregnancy. There would be...complications. She's a mutant, Bruce is....Bruce is genetically altered. There are things to take into consideration. The target. The danger. The cost. She has no issue when it comes to money but she knows Bruce would.....she presses her head to the steering wheel. She doesn't know what Bruce would want. She can't figure out what his reaction would be. Again, she's worrying, when there might not be anything to worry about. She lifts her head and nods to herself. She's a smart, independent woman and she can do this.