Two weeks Sam has been back in the states and sober, the last drink he had was on the plane back from New Zealand after losing Amanda and searching for her he thought it best to let someone else take over with the investigation. Zeta promised to keep him informed and notify him if anything changes. She told him it was important to try and keep himself busy. Sam reluctantly agreed but he was a tad homesick. The mansion was pretty much the same and while he did have one or two students happy to see him his classes still remained empty. It probably didn’t help that he was gone for a few months.

Sam poured a stiff drink of whiskey and set it next to the little poker chip which read ‘two weeks sober’ it wasn’t really an official coin but his sponsor thought it was important to celebrate the ‘small victories’ they were working towards a month now and while everything around him seemed to be alcohol he thought it best to continue with his old life and try to stay busy. He was sleeping better and working out more, his last encounter with Amanda seemed to give him at least a little closure with his ‘not-real’ family. In fact since he had seen her last he hadn’t seen them in his dreams. In fact that’s all they were dreams. His friends, his brother there was even a pleasant dream about his mother and his father. A forgotten memory of a Christmas long past. Every time he woke from the dreams the first thing he wanted was a drink. Though it was easy to stay sober when things were going great.

Sam pushed the whisky on the bar in front of him and then touched the chip as if he was going to pick up a drink then stopped. The door opened, ”You’re late.” he pointed to the whisky, ”Been back two weeks and you don’t even call, write, knock on my door?” Sam said joking. He spent most of his time alone, working out by himself or hiding on the mansion grounds. If anything it was Sam’s fault he hadn’t seen the mirror walker.

Sam was back. Again. Mostly hiding out on the Mansion grounds, but allegedly (according to his invitation), stone cold sober. Except, the invitation was to a bar. Gawain was not sure if that was a good sign or a bad one, but he turned up anyway. Sam was family, and if he was diving off the wagon, at least he was giving a heads up, and doing it in a place where Gawain had a chance to catch him.

There was already a glass on the bar when he walked in.

>>”You’re late. Been back two weeks and you don’t even call, write, knock on my door?”

"I missed you too" Gawain grinned, sitting on a stool next to Sam and knocking back the whisky before he had a chance to change his mind "So you done sulking in your room now?"

The mirror walker’s comment was expected; Gawain always did have a response for everything. ”Maybe, I’m pretty good at the sulking. Found people liked it better than me being drunk.” Sam said with a shrug of his shoulders. Sam watched the glass be set back down empty. A little weight was lifted off his shoulders when it was gone.

Reaching over the bar and grabbing the first bottle of whiskey he could find he placed the bottle in front of Gawain and then added, ”What I miss?” Sam asked curiously. He had some stories from other members of the faculty about everything that had been going on in the mansion and the city. The rift was interesting, but as always he liked hearing things from Ghost or Gawain, both of which told the story better. They usually just gave him the important bullet points.

It was out of pure self-sacrifice, obviously, that Gawain drank the whiskey. He was no stranger to Sam's alcohol stash, but he had never been as heavy a drinker as him. It was more of a social thing, unless he was in a really bad place. Sam had his own demons too. It was good to hear that he was not trying to drown them anymore, and Gawain wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

>>"Maybe, I’m pretty good at the sulking. Found people liked it better than me being drunk.”

"People are right" Gawain smirked. Sam grabbed a whole bottle, which the mirrorwalker promptly took from his hand and placed out of arm's reach, refilling his own glass in the process. He'd take his time with this one, though.

>>”What I miss?”

"I don't know, what's the last thing you didn't miss?" Gawain arched an eyebrow "Giant inter-dimensional rip in the middle of New York?"

”Heard about it, haven’t seen it? Did you run into me yet? More handsome?” he asked with his usual charm then looked away in an afterthought, ”No, he’d need two eye patches.” looking back to Gawain with a shoulder shrug he added, ”That wasn’t here when I was though, any idea what caused it?”

”I walked to Isengard. Sam said as matter of factly as he stood up and walked around to the other side of the bar. He was starting to get thirsty as well and as owner of the fine establishment Sam was more than happy to help himself to anything behind the bar. This only manifested however as a glass of watter which he chilled using his mutation. The glass frosted over as he grabbed it and he started to lean on the bar.

”Anymore kids?” Sam added to his list of questions.

The rip was kind of big news in town. Even if Sam had missed it the first time it opened, he was bound to have heard about it by now.

>>”Heard about it, haven’t seen it? Did you run into me yet? More handsome? No, he’d need two eye patches.”

"Maybe he's a monk somewhere." Gawain suggested with a smirk. He had not heard about Other Sam yet. That was probably for the better.

>>"That wasn’t here when I was though, any idea what caused it?”

Gawain watched as Sam walked around the bar, but in the end, he only got some chilled water. Gawain sipped his own drink.

"No idea yet. Although there are some rumors about some powers colliding... who knows?"

Just on this side of the rip, there were some mutants with powers that were capable of a lot, without interference from another dimension. And Gawain was more interested in how they could be contained, rather than what caused the rip in the first place.

>>”Anymore kids?”

"Yours or mine?" Gawain grinned, leaning against the bar "Yeah, they come and go. School's as usual. Oh, I should tell you, we have Chase... the other Chase, in the basement. For now."

Sam smirked at the idea of him as a monk as he sipped his water. ”Scary thought isn’t it? Someone like me a monk. I have worn a robe before though. Bathrobe but still counts.” Sam said reaching for a comparison. Monks could drink. Sam at the moment was fighting not to.

”Whatever caused could also undo it. Don’t tell me you haven’t looked into it yet?” Sam raised an eyebrow then added, ”Or is this more of one of those…no point changing it?” Sam then added, ”Well if there isn’t an harm from it… maybe I’m married over there. To think a world of women who I haven’t dated. What’s the real estate value over there?” Sam joked as his ears perked to the door.

Sam walked over to the rack of mugs and pulled a tall glass and filled it with a beer and set it down at the end of the bar. The old man walked in as usual and grabbed the stool and the beer. Walking back over to Gawain, ”Don’t joke about that. I know I don’t have any kids, other than the adopted ones.” Sam knocked loudly on the bar and leaned back in towards Gawain.

In a hushed tone, ”Other Chase?” the basement was reserved as a few holding cells. Sam helped upgrade the security with the help of his fellow X-Men (shout out to Streak). The last person that he knew of to occupy the basement was Shade. Sam of course used Drew’s promise keeping abilities to enlist Shade into helping him. Sam still had his own tattoos as well most of which were hidden.

”Take he needed to be put down there? Who else knows?” Sam asked the basement wasn’t typically supposed to be used unless it was signed off but… Sam might have broken the rules with Shade.

The more time passed since the rip open, the more complicated it became to close it. Not just the technicalities - although those were pretty tough too - but rather, the implications. People intermingled. SUPER spread over here. People had family, lost friends... there was a whole other X team. Impact and Jesse. Mirror did not want to think much about that.

>>"Whatever caused could also undo it. Don’t tell me you haven’t looked into it yet? Or is this more of one of those…no point changing it?... Well if there isn’t an harm from it… maybe I’m married over there. To think a world of women who I haven’t dated. What’s the real estate value over there?”

Gawain's eyes widened in mock panic.

"Oh my god. We gotta close that thing."

Jokes about women and children aside, there were legitimate things that Sam needed to be informed about.

>>”Other Chase? Take he needed to be put down there? Who else knows?”

"Ms. Taylor and Jorge" Gawain sighed "He doesn't need to be put down there... it was just our best guess at keeping him off SUPER's radar. They had him locked down as an asset. Because they are apparently not above using kids." he frowned.

Sam’s nostrils flared in irritation when Gawain filled him in about SUPER. He didn’t know what they did exactly but he was getting a strong T.A.T. vibe. Both used kids. Sam’s hand started to shake as he reached up towards the bottle and he instinctively slammed his hand on the bar top. One of his ‘don’t do’s’ is ‘use’ kids. He was one of those kids.

”So we stop them.” Sam said bluntly his irritation now apparent on his face. ”You know my feelings about people using kids.” Sam took a breath then felt the old man at the end of the bar look back down after his little outburst.

Another breath, ”Tell me we are doing something… and yes, I’m involving myself now.”

Gawain winced as Sam slammed a fist on the counter, and moved the bottle out of reach. The last thing he needed was a Sam that was pissed and off the wagon. SUPER probably deserved whatever was coming their way, but they had to be smarter about it if they wanted the victory to be permanent.

>>”So we stop them. You know my feelings about people using kids.”

"Yeah, I think we are on the same page on this one" Gawain nodded. Using kids was the lowest SUPER had gone so far. Somebody should have stopped them at least halfway there.

>>”Tell me we are doing something… and yes, I’m involving myself now.”

"Well, good. We need you." Gawain nodded "SUPER is setting up shop on this side of the rip. And they are smart about it too. They might not be our government's organization, but I bet they are already putting roots down."

It was nice to hear he was needed. Other than the bar and the his two fuzz balls back at the mansion he had been feeling ‘unneeded’ something he had been struggling with since he found out that his own children weren’t real a few years ago.

”How smart?” Sam asked as he took a step away from the bottle. He didn’t say it but he appreciated the slide of the bottle in the other direction, out of reach out of mind or at least until he moved closer which was what he was struggling to do. His eye shifted from the bottle to the mirror walker again.

”Even if it was our government. Looks like we’ll need a frost of some kind. No matter how deep roots go, you get a big enough frost weeds will die eventually, right? Think it’s supposed to get pretty cold.” a chill left his body and swept over the bar and frosted the bottle closest to him, the one Gawain slid.

”You up for some recon?”

>>”How smart?”

Gawain frowned. "'Doing PR' smart. God, I hate it when villains do PR..." it never ended well for anyone when the bad guys showed up on the TV screen.

>>”Even if it was our government. Looks like we’ll need a frost of some kind. No matter how deep roots go, you get a big enough frost weeds will die eventually, right? Think it’s supposed to get pretty cold. You up for some recon?”

"Showoff" Gawain smirked as Sam froze some of the bottles. It was a waste of alcohol, but at least he was not drinking any of it. "Yes, definitely."