What's the matter with me? she wondered as she punched in Emma's security code into the elevator panel.  I've cried more these past two days than in... since I ended counseling.  Her pride was stronger than that.  And that scene with Tony?  What was that all about?

     Emma pretended that she kept this apartment close to her headquarters for the times she didn't feel like driving home and for hosting the non-Hellfire Club parties that were inevitable for a business person in her position but, truthfully, it was a showcase for her Cleopatra collection.  Tonight,  Celeste expected to find the place empty except for a mummy or two.  Which was wonderful for her, she didn't feel like dealing with people.

     She walked out of the open elevator door and flipped on the light switch.  Quickly, she made her way towards the drawer where the keys were kept.  She was sure that Emma had a fancy name for the junk drawer.

     As she reached for the drawer, Emma walked out of the living room area.  "I'm sorry," Celeste apologized.  "I didn't expect..." She looked over Emma's casual attire-- designer jeans and top that had to have come off a Parisian runway—and sighed.  "I didn't mean to come over when you and Bobby were here."  She opened the drawer and grabbed the first set of car keys she touched, to the Alfa Romeo.  "Do you mind?" she asked.

     Emma had a way of just looking at a person that would curl wallpaper.  The younger woman caught the full effect of it.  After pausing for an explanation that Celeste wouldn't offer, Emma sighed.  "Where's Tony?"

     "We... we... I asked to be let off so I could drive myself home."  Celeste tried to explain.

     Emma nodded.  "Ariel all settled in?" Celeste nodded.  "What happened in the car then?"
 
     Emma read people's minds all the time, having no qualms about personal space or privacy.  Those around her had learned to accept that fact and, for some, it created a friendship unlike any other.  However, it was bothersome at times.  "I wish you would stop reading my mind."

     Still in the cat-like attitude only she could manage, Emma looked her over.  "Your shirt is wrinkled.  It's twenty degrees outside with no wind but you're wearing a light jacket, and your hair is a mess."  Celeste blushed.  "What happened?"  Emma asked as she started to make a cup of hot chocolate.

     Hot chocolate was just one thing Emma was exacting about.  Much like a person would be with finding the right wine to match a meal, Emma made her hot chocolate to match a person's mood.  She handed her assistant a cup with cream, dark chocolate and brown sugar, topped with whipped cream.  "Drink up," she ordered.
 
     The look alone told Celeste that Emma had a pretty good idea of what had happened.  "He called it lust and stopped," Celeste explained as she wrapped her cold hands around the drink.

     Emma had made herself a cup of mocha mint and half-and-half, which she sipped as Celeste explained herself.  "He tried to take advantage of your mood?" she asked, trying to get her friend to be honest with herself.

     Celeste shook her head.  "I was the one... let's just say I was doing my best to 'seal the deal' so to say."  She took a tentative, foamy sip and discovered she enjoyed the combination.  "Most guys would want a willing woman," she complained.

     Emma gave her a half smile.  "In the back of a limo?  Knowing that the driver could hear every sound?"  Celeste started to blush.  "Bumpkin is deaf-mute," Emma reassured her.

     "I—" Celeste set down the cup, "I really wanted to make love to him."  She paused, and thought about it.  "Funny-- with all the stuff that has happened today, I wanted him to comfort me."  She thought about it.  "That's not what I thought I wanted from a best friend."

     Emma took a sip from her drink, "He called it lust, Celeste.  That means he knows the difference.  He didn't want lust from his best friend."  Finally, she hoped, the time had come that Celeste might be able to accept that she had more feelings than friendship for Tony.

     "Telling Angelo had to open up old wounds," she thought out loud.  "That was just left-over emotions in the car.  We needed to comfort each other... and we got carried away."
 
    The only cue that Emma was frustrated came from her pinkie finger clicking against the china mug.  But what could she expect, she asked herself.  Both people had legitimate reasons for running from love.  Now they were holding those reasons up as barriers, proof that love couldn't work because it hadn't before.  "Why do you think you picked him?"

    Celeste shrugged.  "Closeness.  He wanted to take me up to Ariel's center.  He cares about me, I care about him," she mused.  It made sense to her.

    "You care about him?"  Emma asked, deciding to plant a grain of sand in the woman's mind.  Sure, she could have telepathically done it, but this way was more honest and would work better in the long run.

    "A lot.  I love him... but..."  The 'not in that way' she would have tagged on suddenly seemed wrong.

    Emma knew Celeste, knew her weaknesses and strengths.  And the woman had a territorial streak that was almost as large as her pride.  "But not in the way that Silver's meeting with him tomorrow bothers you?"

    "You know Silver?"  Celeste asked Emma, surprised.

    Emma shrugged.  "She's not unknown to me.  Her name has come up for membership in the Hellfire Club."  Before that, Emma had met Silver, the leader of the Asian Network, in Madipoor.
 
    "Silver's a she?"  Celeste asked, surprised.  After Tony had revealed he had slept with Pete Wisdom, the woman had had her doubts.

    With a cold smile, the older woman said, "There are a lot of things about that trip to Madipoor you don't know."

    "I'd like to get the full story one day!"  Celeste snapped.  She had heard bits and pieces over time, enough to know Pete and Tony and others had teamed up to rescue homeless people who were being sold into slavery.  Something had happened and that was the reason Forrest stayed with Tony.

    Emma sighed and filled Celeste in on the key details of Tony's past with Silver.  "She's the head of the Asian network–"

    "That Silver... but isn't he a he?"  Celeste asked, confused.  She had learned a lot in her role as Tony's mistress, more than it was really safe for her to know.  Although she attempted to keep it on this side of legal, she knew the code names for key Network people worldwide, drug routes, and had talked to many members of the underworld.

    Emma shook her head.  "Not anymore.  The Leader– you do remember Tony talking about the mutant who runs all of the Network, don't you?"  It was a carefully chosen barb.  Emma had expected her assistant, whom she had sponsored into the Hellfire Club, to know the names and standings of all the potential members.  Celeste nodded.  "The Leader ordered her to reveal herself... evidentially, he feels it's time that the Network brings itself more up to date."

      Taking another sip of the hot chocolate, Emma continued.  "Tony had been bitten by a diseased vampire and Silver mutant power is the ability to speed up or slow down diseases.  Somehow, Freeze got her to come and help."  Celeste nodded.  After seeing what she had seen, it wasn't hard to believe that somewhere out there two types of vampires existed, one of which created new vampires by creating hosts for demons, and another that transmitted a virus which caused a person to become a vampire.   "That night was the first time the two slept together.  I believe the two are 'bed buddies'."  Scorn polished the phrase, making it a shiny sign to Celeste.

    "But..."  Celeste started as she remembered what Tony had told her about his love life over the past two years.  He never said he wasn't sleeping with anybody, just that he couldn't foresee a relationship with a woman.  Of course, until earlier that day, Celeste didn't know he had slept with at least one man either.

    There was a lot she didn't know about Tony, Celeste realized.  And she hated the fact.  Not so much that the past existed, but that she hadn't ever thought that she needed to know about his sex life.  And the jealousy that she felt struck her as odd, as she realized that she was ... envious of those people in his past.

    "Does it bother you?"  Emma asked in her most innocent way.

    "It does..."  Celeste murmured, surprised at how much it did bother her.

    "Why?"  That question was delivered in a cool tone of voice, yet she was very interested in the answer.  The two had been dancing around each other for so long that if the game wasn't so entertaining, Emma would have helped them along.

    A weird feeling danced across her heart as Celeste answered honestly, "I... have feelings for him."  As she said that, it actually seemed like a bolt of lightening hit her, and she marveled at how wonderful it felt to have admitted it.  "I think... I think I could..."  Her eyes lit up, "I think I might even... love him."

    Bobby chose that second to call into the kitchen "Emma?  Need help with the popcorn?"  Celeste quickly started to leave.

    Emma held her hand and turned back to him.  "In a minute."  Turning to Celeste, she asked, "Where are you going?"

    With a gleeful look on her face, Celeste beamed,  "I'm going to tell him!"

    In an effort to help her, Emma reached out and tried to find Tony's location.  What she found quickly caused her smile to fade.  "He's in bed," Emma covered for him.  "And I don't think it'd be a good idea to disturb him."  All this work, all this time, and Tony had to literally screw this potential relationship up.  Emma held back a sigh.

    In her euphoria, Celeste took that in the best possible light.  "I'll tell him tomorrow, then."  She waved goodbye to Emma before the other woman could say anything else.  When the door clicked closed, she was actually humming.

    Bobby came in the kitchen a beat or two after she left.  "What was that?" he asked Emma with a kiss.

    Emma finally sighed.  "I'm giving those two watches for Christmas."

    With a puzzled look, Bobby started the microwavable popcorn.  "Who?  Tony and Celeste?"  Emma nodded.  "Why?"

    "Because their timing is always off," Emma said with a sigh.  Changing the subject, she asked, "What movies did you get?"

**

    Cable turned to Lucky, and tried frantically to think of a way to handle the situation.  Dammit, he was a Summers-- things like this happened about once a year.  He thought he would know what to say to his sometime lover/partner/friend/whatever's time crossed test tube daughter, but he didn't.

     At the same time, Lucky looked at her stepfather and wished they could have the same relationship they had had in her own time line.  They were friends, really friends then.  But now?  What did she have?  Hating Ziggy for trying to save her life, she asked, "Did she take this any better than finding out about my brother?"

     "Another child?"  Cable croaked as he ran through the years that he had known Dom.  The only time she had time to have a kid was with-- "Tyler's?"  He hoped that he was wrong, that the brother had been another test tube child, but Lucky's actions betrayed her.

     Not willing to look him in the eyes, Lucky started to look at her new tennis shoes.  They were still pretty white, with only a few splashes of mud from this morning's events.  Not bad considering.  Finally, hearing the older man's breath expelled like someone had hit him in the gut, she looked up.  "I'm sorry," she whispered.  "He was a good guy... he died tryin---"

     Beneath the shock that Cable was wrapped in, he realized that Lucky literally knew too much for her own good.  That kid knew, or could guess the major enemies of the X-Men, the places of battles, and who would die when within the next twenty-five years.  Unlike Bishop or himself, she would have been educated in all of this, from an insider's prospective, by people who were actually there.   He held up his hand to stop her.  "I—I don't need to know that."

     Lucky looked at him, wide-eyed and surprised.  "But---" she started.

     He repeated himself; "I don't need to know that."

     She blinked, and tried to protest in another way.  "People are going to die soon!  Don't you need to know that?"

     Cable nodded, and motioned for the child to sit down.  She clearly wasn't a normal child; she was far too poised and articulate.  "Soon," he offered.  "But first, we need to have a little talk about holding your tongue."

     She nodded, becoming suddenly adult.  "But after that, ask me what I know about Operation: Zero Tolerance."  A fire burned in her eyes as she realized she could change her future and her past.  If she lived up to her name, she could save her friends without them even knowing that they were in danger.

     He took in a sharp breath, "I thought we managed to stop that from happening."  All the documents he saw suggested that the government's plans had been destroyed.

     She shook her head.  "Think again."

**

     One of the first things that Tony discovered when he started drinking was that there were always excuses.  Not usually good ones, but they seemed to justify his actions.  Silver had stopped by to see him.  He was drunk and in need of comforting.  She associated no-strings-attached sex with comfort.  They slept together because she didn't want him doing anything else he'd regret.

     Tony sat on the side of his bed as his mind started to clear.  Pushing past the haze to recall the events of the night, he discovered that there were no good reasons to explain his actions.  Why did he start drinking?  Somewhere he had reached the point that he couldn't continue to do his job.  And reaching for that bottle had been his self-imposed punishment for what he had done to others.
 
     Silver had found him an emotional wreck, sobbing as he downed his vodka.  Maybe she actually was afraid that he'd do what he was talking about– jump out his sixteenth story apartment.  And maybe he did mean it, because that was the only way that his drunken mind could come up with to allow him to leave the Network without causing people to go after those he cared about.
 
     And maybe she had felt that she was right to sleep with him, that way she'd know where he was and what he was doing.  And maybe she had hoped  he would feel more alive.  And, besides, it wasn't like they hadn't slept together before.

     She turned over in bed, jarring him.  His stomach didn't appreciate sudden motion and let him know.  As he stumbled to the bathroom, all he really knew was there had to be a way to keep his sobriety-- which meant leaving the Network.  Because nothing, no amount of money, no amount of power was worth what he was feeling at that moment.  Empty, disappointed in himself, and that he had hurt everyone who cared about him.

**
     These were the times that Bobby loved the most, the moments Emma fully let her guard down and was relaxed .  He wrapped the satin sheet around her and snuggled against her.  She made a little sound, thanking him for... everything. Unable to stop himself, he reached up and brushed the blonde hair off of her face.  "A quiet night away from it all," he whispered his earlier words to her again.

        Emma turned to him and took time to savor the moment.  The sheets were so comforting against her bare skin.  Rose scented candles were lit around the room.  The soft music relaxed her.  "Even if some of it followed us here," she agreed.

        Bobby placed a gentle finger on her lips and shook his head.  "Not a word," he reminded her.  "This is our night."

        Emma suckled on the tip of the finger for a second before continuing, "You might want to hear this..." Bobby shook his head and made a suggestion.  "In a minute," she promised him.

        He turned to her, already feeling strength rebuilding in his body.  "What?"

        "After all this time, Celeste was honest with herself... and her feelings for Tony.  But it was too late..." It was impossible to fool a telepath.  "He ... fucked somebody else."  The vulgarity of the word seemed out of place in the oasis the couple had made but it fully applied to the situation.  "And I think..." she trailed off.  There was an irony to the situation and she wondered if the two would ever find their way into each other's hearts.  Then she turned her attention back to the present.

        Bobby turned to her, "What?"

        Emma kissed his cheek.  "You make me happy."  The leer on his face made her laugh and that was what she was talking about.  Before him, before having him help her come to terms with what happened at The Clinic, she had been its victim.  Now, she had managed to move past that time in her life, accept it as part of her, part of her past.  And even enjoy the only good thing that had happened because of it, her daughter, Cordelia.

        Now, she had someone she could take off her mask with.  And she had gained so much.  It was odd.  Bobby was almost ten years younger than she was, totally her opposite when it came to anything.  He was flippant and she was humor deficient. She was deadly serious all day and he couldn't be serious if he tried.  But the two had merged in a way that had made both people truly content.  They knew that they couldn't change or alter each other but they were magnets, pulling the other away from the extreme edge where they had lived for so long.

        "You make me very happy too," Bobby said as he slipped a hand around the diamond ring she wore on her neck.  Knowing that he couldn't push the issue, he let the ring drop back against Emma's chest.

        "I've been married before..." Emma pointed out softly.  Her brief marriage wasn't something that she talked about too often but the abortive attempt at martial bliss had left its scars on her.

        "And I'm nothing like that FBI agent," Bobby pointed out.

        Emma shook her head and kissed his hand.  "That's one of the things I love best about you.  He was so paranoid and driven, it scared me."  She had hid her mutant ability, afraid that Fox Mulder would have dragged her into a lab and forced her to be his guinea pig in his elusive effort to discover 'The Truth.'

        "Gee thanks..." Bobby joked with her.

        Emma smiled and pulled his hand back to the necklace.  "What I'm trying to say, Drake, is this...  I've known bad relationships, decent relationships and, for the first time, thanks to you, a wonderful relationship."  She paused for a second and fumbled with the clasp.  "I'm ready to take a chance on us."

 Bobby started to light up as she undid the chain.  He had had faith that, given enough time and security, Emma would come to this decision.  Impulsively, he jumped out of the bed and dragged her into the living room.  "I'm not going to tell our kids that I proposed to their mother in bed!" he explained when he caught Emma's puzzled glance.

 She laughed.  "Well... that would be the perfect way to start talking about the birds and the bees with them."  All laughter stopped when Bobby grabbed her hand.

 In spite of the fact that they had never done anything by the book, he was down on one knee, clasping her left hand.  And the look in his eyes...  it seemed that for an instant, Cupid had channeled all the love in the world into him.  And, much to her surprise, the tears that had managed to well up in her eyes challenged her ice woman image.

        At one time, Bobby had a lengthy speech memorized.  But Emma had beat him to it.  All he could do was slip the ring on her finger in awe.  She actually said yes before he managed to say the words.

***
 
     Awkwardly, Tony stumbled to his feet and washed his mouth out.  Silver's mutant ability was purging the poison from his system and slowly allowing him to have a clear head.  The first and most important thing he needed to do was find a way to insure he didn't fall off the wagon again.  All the readings he had done into addiction indicated that relapses were a part of recovery, signals that things were endangering his sobriety.

     He reached over the sink and grabbed the phone.  When he first bought the penthouse, he would have never believed that he would be glad there was a phone in the bathroom.  At this moment,  it seemed like a life line.

     Clumsy fingers punched in a complicated series of numbers, allowing him to quickly reach a familiar voice.  "You wanker!"  Pete Wisdom started his morning triade on the other side of the phone.  "Decent people like to sleep..."

     Tony broke in when Pete reached for a cigarette.  "I'm sorry..." he offered.  "But I need to take you up on your offer."

     "Tony?"  Pete asked as he climbed out of bed.  Kitty looked at him with a bemused expression and Pete waved a hand at her.

     "Yeah..."  His tongue still felt a little heavy, he discovered.  "How do I get out?"

     Still a little annoyed at being woke up, Pete suggested, "You could fake your own death and let me scar you 'orribly."

     "It might work..."  Tony thought aloud.  "Would you?"  It was an option, and he had to consider all of them right now.

     "It's no fun when you play along..."  Pete muttered.  He moved into the living area of his and Kitty's room and sat down.  "I'm goin' to need time to come up with something...  Kitty or one of the mutant mafia might know someone or have an idea... Bridge still owes you for saving his life..."  G.  W.  Bridge, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., former Six Packer, would be a good place to start.  Logan, with his connections, was also someone else to talk to.  Quickly, Pete started to make a list.  "You don't mind if I make some calls?"
 
     "I understand."  And Tony did.  He couldn't just turn himself over to the police– he'd be dead the second he entered a jail cell, if he survived that long.  Nowhere would ever be totally safe for him.   Tony sat down, careful to keep his voice low.  "What do I do to protect Celeste and Forrest?"

     A standard trick of the trade quickly came to mind.  "Set up safe deposit boxes around the world in their names.   They die, the boxes get opened."  The information contained in those boxes would be enough to kill the Network, making it better to leave the two alive than to kill them.

     "And me?"  In his mind, Tony was already dead.  It would be the easiest way to protect those around him.

     Pete was one step ahead of him.  "Give me time... let me see what I can come up with."  He shook his head, knowing that he would have to really pull a rabbit out of his hat.  "Don't do anything rash..." He wasn't going to ask for a promise.  "Just remember who your friends are.

     Tony nodded and looked at Silver.  It was time he gathered every resource he had at his disposal.  "I won't," he responded.

     Pete looked at the phone, feeling the weight of the promise the other man made to him.  "I'll see what I can do," he promised him back as he hung up the phone, hating to think that literally the other man's life could be in his hands.

  He was still half expected Black Air to come after him for leaving them and knew that betraying them had a price.  The Network exacted an even darker revenge on those who left.  Once, Pete had stumbled over the pieces of a lower level deserter's body in a room that had been so soaked in blood that even the walls were black.  Death hadn't come quickly or kindly to that sap.  Someone who knew as much as Tony would be very difficult to protect.