"Yes, but I think we considered a bunch of vigilantes still. Not much of heroes in the media's eyes." Tricity leaned forward and remembered her conversation with Xavier. "Charles doesn't think very highly of Dorian either. I think he may have had a student at his school leave to head there, but kept a mind-track on him. I'm not really sure though..."

Mike shrugged. "Well, if it comes to getting a team in there, you know I'm always in. We don't want to leave too much of the team in there, though... that'd be kind of dangerous." Unspoken was the probably-predictable 'send me in, keep Daria here safe' sentiment.

"I hope it doesn't come to any kind of invasion, but I don't know... Fade will have to be our eyes. Just wishing they would hurry back soon. They've been a while actually." She picked up her radio and called to Johnathon. "Hey, any word from the team yet?"

She could tell he was eating when he answered her back. "Negative. Think it's been about two hours now. Want me to radio them?"

"No, not yet. I don't want you to possibly ruin anything they may be doing. Just wait a little longer." Tricity put the radio down and looked back over at Mike and Daria. "Hope our intuitions are wrong."

Mike nodded. "They can take care of themselves, though. Not everyone always needs the rest of us rushing in to the rescue. They'll be fine, whether or not the intuition is wrong."

He glanced at the clock and sighed. "We'd best start getting ready to catch our plane," he said, reluctantly handing Tristan back to Tricity.

She took Tristan back from his new godfather and gave Mike and Daria kisses on the forehead. "All right you two. Be careful. If anything should happen, I'll let you know as soon as possible. Have fun!" She gave them a wave and closed the door behind her, heading for her room.

"why didn't we call the mansion 'The Sanctuary'? Sounds so pretty." she said absent mindedly, obviously still giddy since she'd been playing with the baby while she listened to the conversation.

She hadn't wanted to talk about Sapphire, so much was on her mind about the girl...and how much they potentially had in common.

"Raiding the place sounds like fun." Daria laughed, teasing him since she knew how much Mike wanted her safe and sound.

"Yeah, 'fun'," Mike smirked dryly, kissing Daria on the cheek. "But... ah, well, we can take any little 'sanctuary' mutants they throw at us."

There was a knock at their door. Mike closed his eyes, sensing the other side and shaking his head. Daria could probably smell what his mind felt. There were two people on the other side... both of them Asters, and one of them very, very scared.

Daria sniffed the air slightly, smelling Sarah and Johnny. And if it weren't for the former, she would've charged at the latter with outstretched claws.

"Come in." She said and watched as Sarah ran through the door with Johnny closing it after her.

Mike chuckled slightly. "Why do you think he brought her along for this?" he said. Sarah hugged Daria, mindful of the stitches, while Johnny kind of hung back, positioning himself so Mike was between him and Daria. Mike was giving him a sort of odd, appraising look. "What did you want, Johnny?"

Sarah piped up. "Well, he was telling me that he's going to stay here... at least a while, Emmy told him he had to or something. So I told him it was time t-"

"I can do this, thanks, sis," Johnny cut in, obviously not wanting Ms. Awkward Moment saying this for him. "I... ah..." he was staring down at his feet, casting nervous glances at Mike and Daria as he plowed on. "I just... didn't know how things turned out after the warehouse, and... ah, I just wanted to make sure you were all right," he said, glancing quickly at Daria. "And... I wanted to say that... I'm sorry."

Mike was giving Johnny the same odd look... not looking doubtful like one would expect. He glanced quickly at Daria to guage her reaction.

Daria hugged Sarah back as best she could and kissed the girl on the head. Then she looked at Johnny as he apologized. Still mindful of Sarah she held back her first reaction.

"Why the sudden change of heart." she couldn't help it-it came out bitter and biting.

"Yeah... I..." Johnny seemed to be at a loss for words. "I don't know why I've been doing the things I've been doing."

Mike cut in. "It started after I left, didn't it?" he aksed, looking curiously at Johnny. "Just got worse and worse, until you were up to doing that shit you did when you saw me at the funeral." Johnny nodded, dumbly, still staring at the floor. "THen when you followed me to New York, it started getting easier to be more... human. Until about... oh, a couple months ago, when it all suddenly went to shit again." Again Johnny nodded silently. "Until just last week... when all that garbage just seemed to go away?" Mike didn't even look to see Johnny nod, he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "For what it's worth, John... I believe you." Johnny looked bewildered.

"Then, you-"

Mike nodded, well aware that this was likely to piss off Daria. "Yes... I forgive you, Johnny."

And yes, it did piss of Daria and she let him know that mentally, very, very loudly.

However she said nothing of the sort outloud. She just nodded, although it was obvious "I don't know what I did what I did" just wasn't something that would fly.

What tugged at Daria was that Johnny was family, Mike's family and therefore her family. And she couldn't disown him, no matter what he did however she couldn't bring herself to say she forgave him, the words just wouldn't form in her mouth.

"I appreciate your apology." she said with inhuman stiffness.

"And as usual, babe... I can explain everything. This... actually makes a lot of things from the past two months make sense for me now. But I'd rather explain it away from the prying minds of competing telepaths."

"How long do we hav until our flight leaves, babe?"

Two minutes if I can help it.

"Pretty soon."

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked innocently even though she knew because Daria had told her.

Daria just laughed and pushed her toward the door. "Away from you!" she stuck out her tongue and Sarah returned the loving gesture.

Mike chuckled. "Well, there are still forty-seven states Daria and I haven't been to, and we're trying to hit all fifty before the year's up, so we have our work cut out for us," he teased, giving his sister a kiss on the forehead. As if sensing that he hadn't overstayed his welcome solely because his welcome had never existed, Johnny muttered a goodbye and slipped out the door.

"So are you guys just scouting out places for your honeymoon?" Sarah asked innocently.

"can't get anything past this girl," Mike mused, "And she didn't even SEE your ring."