Bruce Laughed To Himself As He Saved The Voicemail, Shut Off His Phone, And Shoved It Into His Pocket.

Bruce laughed to himself as he saved the voicemail, shut off his phone, and shoved it into his pocket. He looked around the subway train, trying not to feel itchy and uncomfortable with all the people. He felt as though he might not have done a great job, since he basically ran off the thing when it stopped. He hailed himself a cab, and found himself back at the school in record time.

Even though he had been living at the school for almost a week now, he still felt uncomfortable just walking right in. He hesitated on the doorstep, then pushed it open, making his way inside.

♤

"Hey Bruce, our little genius is asking for you." "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad! The ‘sperment is waiting! Come home soon!" "Come home soon sweetie, we miss you! Love you!"

"I promised to protect you," Bruce said, slowly. "I can't do that now." Bruce looked down at Rebecca. "I've destroyed her life. She can never... she'll never lead a normal life."

"Da…Da no sad." Rebecca frowned and started to pat at his cheeks.

"Hank and Charles both think that we won’t know anything for sure until her powers start to kick in. That perhaps the X-Gene suppressed things a bit." Andie said softly, going over to them and wrapping her arms around both Bruce and Rebecca.

"There's certainly no prior studies in something like this," Bruce commented. "I'm the only one who survived like this. By extension, she's presently the only child who can even be considered to hold radiation in her body like I can, never mind the X-Gene factor."

Bruce adjusted his grip on Rebecca, laughing at her lecture. "Good. It's good to hear she's learning all the right things."

Rebecca made a stern face that looked much like Andie’s as she looked up at him. “Bad word Da. No say bad word.”

"That’s part of why we think she hasn’t been effected other than accelerated development. We still don’t know what her mutation is going to be, especially with the radiation. She could take after me, she could have something completely different." Andie said, chuckling as Rebecca shook her little index finger at her father, still lecturing him about bad words.

"She picked that up from my always lecturing Logan about watching his words around tiny ears."

Bruce cradled Rebecca's head in his palm, letting her lean back, supporting her weight so he could look her over. He couldn't help but smile at her before he looked back up at Andie, his face turning serious again.

"I have to finish up here," Bruce informed her. "I have patients, a few people who need me right now. I just need to finish with them, wrap things up. And then I can come with you." Come home, he didn't say, afraid of the implications of a word like home.

"Bruce, I don’t care where we are. I just want us to be a family." Andie sighed. "And don’t go all brooding on me saying that we can’t be. Like I said earlier, clearly we need to try something different. Leaving doesn’t do anything."

Andie wasn’t about to back down on this, especially not with how happy Rebecca clearly was in her father’s arms.

Bruce looked down at Rebecca again, then up at Hank. "Is her blood... Is she like me?" He sounded almost equal parts terrified and curious; the terror outweighed the curiosity, but it was plain that he wanted- no, needed to know everything.

"We’ll stay until then. Like I said, the whole trust thing is damaged right now. I’m not letting you out of my sight. If you’re worried about Becky, I’m sure my Nana and Poppy would be more than happy to visit with their great granddaughter." Andie said, putting her hands in her pockets as she looked at him.

"Obviously, you two don't need me," Bruce said, but he could feel all the fight draining out of him the longer he looked at Rebecca. Regardless of all the reasons he knew he should stay away from them, he wanted so badly to stay with his daughter. It was the most selfish decision he had ever made, but he felt as though he might have already made it. "Let me wrap up here. Then, I'll come back with you."

"You stick by her and you love her with everything you have. That’s all you can do." Andie said softly, looking down at the little girl. "I know this isn’t how you wanted things to happen but we’re a family, for better or for worse, and we need to stay together. We need each other."