Email to Jay

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [Jay]
From: [Forge]
Subject: Tell me I didn't just hear that.

I did not hear the name "Tommy" used in the same sentence as our mystery kid in the medlab. And given Terry screaming this morning and then you yelling yesterday, it's too much to be a coincidence.

For god's sake, tell me I'm wrong, Jay. This isn't the guy, it can't be.

JHF

Comments

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [Hephaestus]
From: [Icarus]
Subject: . . .

You've no fucking clue how much I'd love to tell you you're wrong.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [Icarus]
From: [Hephaestus]
Subject: Hades.

Do you want to do something? I mean, is there something we can do to get him out of here? It sounds like they can't move him until he's better - but if he doesn't GET better, what then?

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [plays with fire and metal]
From: [flies too close to hot things]
Subject: more like Tartarus

Think we can sneak down there and hold a pillow up to his face?

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [Not seriously suggesting it]
From: [Has been seriously considering it]
Subject: Think we can book the travel?

I've... not going to lie, I thought about how easy it would be to do. For the stuff he did to you, to Terry - for the stuff he believes, it FEELS like the right thing to do, that we'd be justified.

I want to do it - and I know that medlab. It could be done. He's hooked up to god knows how many machines, and when it comes to machines, I'm the closest thing to God since, well, God.

But what they're saying is right. They've got a responsibility. What happened to him is the same as what happened to you - and if that's justice, then maybe it's not out your right to take more. And the trouble it'd cause is just -

I've been there. I know what it feels like to want to do this, Jay. And I know it'd be wrong, but I still want to do it anyway.

Do me a favor and don't let me make up an excuse to go down there.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [should do more than just consider]
From: [is damn serious]
Subject: write it off as a business expense

If there was some "accident"? You can be fucking sure I wouldn't shed a tear. I would be dead if I didn't have a healing factor. Why should he get any luxury?

I know the docs have a job to do, but seriously? Fuck. Them. It's bull shit, is what it is. In the long run, I reckon it doesn't matter whether he lives or dies. It's where he's treated that matters. He doesn't belong here, fucked up or fit as a fiddle.

I just want him out of here.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [needs some distance]
From: [getting some in a bit]
Subject: My account's not THAT big.

Nor would I. But dammit Jay, you KNOW what I did, why I'm here. There's a line I can't envision crossing, and I think this is it. If he dies, then that's not our fault. We didn't beat him into a pulp, as much as I'd have liked to have been the one to. Call it karma, cosmic justice, or whatever.

As soon as he can be moved, we can lean on the docs and Mr. Summers and the Professor to get him out of here.

But then there's the complication - the docs said he's a mutant. What. The. Fuck.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [professor karma]
From: [there's not enough distance in the world]
Subject: upgrade to Platinum

Oh no. Don't you dare bring that up. That's not you, that's someone else who died in a bomb blast. And this? This is entirely different from what that fellow tried to do.

Yeah, Alison told me he's a mutant. I can't fucking believe it. Talk about karma.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [Too close to the sun]
From: [Not a big enough hammer]
Subject: A cost too high.

Why? Why is it different? Jay, I want him gone as much as anyone - and yeah, that includes you or Terry. He's the antithesis of everything I believe, and now he's one of us. Not our creed, but our kind.

I can't believe I'm even thinking this - but if I get a second chance, how come he doesn't? Because it happened to you?

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [totally missing the nail's head]
From: [melting wax]
Subject: but there's a 0% interest rate

You want me to tell you that you were a fuck up too? Fine. You were. A huge one, at that. You're so Goddamn lucky you got your crime covered up.

But you didn't try to hurt kill people because of some inherency, because they were intrinsically different from you. You planted a bomb to target people who'd genuinely harmed you. Therein lies the difference.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [crash and burn]
From: [Obviously needs a bigger hammer]
Subject: But the down payment's only your soul.

Thank you. SOMEONE finally admits it.

Intent matters, you're right. And his is based out of ignorance. Ignorance is curable, Jay. I'm not saying I'm going to go in there and read him a treatise on equality and try and convert him - but he is close to death and while I want to see him suffer for what he did to you, when is enough enough?

Perhaps what he's done to himself is punishment enough - he has to wake up, if he does, and live every day knowing that he now IS what he used to hate. Hell, give him a shoelace or a shaving kit and he might just solve the problem for us.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to see him pay, Jay. But there's a difference between what's right and what we want sometimes.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [size isn't everything]
From: [on the way down]
Subject: I'm going to hell anyway

An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, I know I know. But I'm not searching for vengeance here. Equity and fair play aren't retribution.

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [Has friends to catch him]
From: [Not touching that one with a 3 meter extension rod]
Subject: Then I'll have company.


Then think of it this way. He took from you your dignity, your sense of safety, and no small measure of pride. And now? You've recovered all those. Look at him down there - just go by and take a look. And imagine what he's lost.

Scales look a little more balanced in that light.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [pervert]
From: [like Ryan Cabrera but prettier and less gay]
Subject: you bring the lawn chairs, I'll bring the booze

How does him nearly (and God-willing) losing his life give me back everything he stole from me?

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

To: [And with better hair]
From: [I've been taking classes from your sister]
Subject: White man's firewater bad, remember?

It doesn't. Nothing's going to GIVE that back, Jay. Accept that. Can't unring the bell, what's done's done. You fight for that every day, getting back a little of what's been taken, piece by piece.

What do you have that he doesn't? Friends. That should mean something.

[x-icarus.livejournal.com]

To: [of all the things to pick up from her]
From: [doesn't date skanky-ass lip-synchers]
Subject: I don't think I can even get drunk

"Recover," "give back," whatever. It's all the same. I haven't "recovered" anything.

. . .

I need to take a break. I'll be back later.