After a few messages back and forth the location and the time had been selected for Sam and Luke's exchange of information. The time was late in the evening when the most of the kids at the mansion would be in bed and Sam would be more available. The place was a sleezy looking dive of a bar that was actually pretty decent when you walked inside. Not only did it provide a good selection of alchol for the conversation but it also afforded privacy in the way that the booths were positioned.

"Here's my card... keep the drinks coming as long as me or my friend want them." Luke instructed the bartender as he handed over his American Express, "He should be here in a few minutes."

"Yeah, whatever." The bar keeper responded as he pocketed the card and turned back to tend to other customers. Ignoring the reaction, Luke walked over to one of the booths and took a seat. Knowing how punctual Sam normally was, he shouldn't have to be waiting long.

"I'll take a mug of whatever's on tap." Luke ordered when a waitress wandered in his direction, "And a basket of chips or somethin'."

"Sure sweety." The waitress said with a flash of a flirtatious smile before heading for the bar to get his order. Leaning against the padded booth back, Luke idly noted the door swinging open for someone else to enter. Had Sam arrived?

Pulling up to the selected bar Sam exited the cab and looked at it with a blank stare. Not knowing if this was the right place or not Sam shrugged and walked in, he knew Luke was for the most part blind but then again, maybe he picked this bar for a reason. Normally he would have suggested Mike’s bar but you know it was Luke and if he wanted to pick a bar, he was more than willing to get a better insight to places where Luke went on his day off.

Walking into the bar Sam smirked as the phrase ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ came to mind as he looked around for Luke, ‘one of the perks of being blind I suppose’ thought Sam as he finally spotted his closest friend in the mansion and one of the closest friends he had (falling second only to Ghost for several reasons). Walking over to the table he spotted the woman walking away from the table with a slightly flirtatious smile. Smirking to himself he took a step in her direction and waved her down.

With a smile and a flash of a warm smile Sam pointed to the table where she just left and where Luke was located was at, ”Hey! I’m supposed to meet that guy over there at the bar, did you just take his order?” she blinked quickly and nodded slightly with her jaw slightly open for some reason. ”Oh good I caught you then!” Sam said his smile growing and his right eye closed for a second, ”I’ll have whatever he is having, and a bottle of Jameson and two shot glasses!” Sam said nodding his head when she looked at him, ”Well three if you get some time!”

“Uhh… I’ll see what I can do!” she smiled and walked off and Sam headed off in the opposite direction, sure it seemed like a lot of alcohol but seeing as they were catching up and Sam was going to tell Luke everything he had missed since he had been gone they were going to need a lot to drink, it was the only way he could talk about some of the stuff so openly.

Sure he touched on the conversation with Shin but, Shin wasn’t Luke and seeing as Luke was one of the people who pushed him with Alex and while he was thankful, at the same time he was still hurting over it, even if he just broke up with Haley.

”Hey Luke,” Sam said as he sat down, ”Hope you don’t mind but I asked our waitress if she could join us for shots a bit later when she has time.” Sam shrugged slightly and looked towards her as she was grabbing their drinks with a wide smile, ”She said she’d see what she can do but the way she was smiling when she left the table I think she will.” sliding into the opposite booth and running his hands over his face then placing them ion the table.

Sam was the person walking through the door but instead of walking straight to the table he flagged down the waitress. After talking to her for a moment he finally walked over and slid into the booth across from Luke.

"Hey Sam." Luke replied with a smile, "I guess that means we've got a time limit on our catching up. We'll have to keeping the conversation moving."

Already a question had popped to the forefront of Luke's mind. He had been trying to get information about Alexandra but so far he'd gotten nothing. And from the comment that Sam had just made about inviting the waitress for shots he was forced to make yet another assumption. Sam and Alex were no longer together. What had happened between them and had it really been bad enough that she had felt the need to basically dissapear?

"So, was the smiling because of me or you?" Luke asked with a grin before holding up his hand to stop any answer, "Never mind, I probably don't want to know."

For a few moments they sat in agreeable silence and then the drinks arrived.

"I'll see you two later." The waitress said with a smile as she set the alcohol down on the table, "Call if you need anything." Turning she walked away, swaying her hips just a little extra for the two boys she was leaving behind.

"To old friends reconnecting." Luke toasted as he grabbed a mug and lifted it up, "Maybe their friendship only grow stronger."

After taking a large swallow, Luke set the drink down and looked at Sam with his expression turning serious. "Ok, since I'm the one who dissapeared you're welcome to ask the first questions and get my story. You deserve some answers."

Sam shrugged and then nodded his head, ”No guarantee that she will be coming to sit with us, I was only asking.” he then laughed and pointed at Luke, ”She was smiling when she left you, didn’t see much of a change in her mood when I asked her to join us.” he laughed slightly and put his hand up to his eye patch and scratched it slightly, ”All you my sight impaired friend!” Sam said with a satisfied smirk, seeing as he dumped Haley not to long ago he wasn’t really in the mood to take anyone home, well at least not now anyway a few drinks and with the conversation leading to where he knew it was going to he had a feeling he was going to have a change of heart.

Once the drink arrived he watched the waitress leave and Sam smirked in Luke’s direction, ”Take a look dude, hips don’t lie!” he laughed slightly placing his hand on the mug as he eyed the bottle of whiskey and the two shot glasses next to it. ”She also wants you to call her, I heard it!” Sam said with a laugh as he lifted his mug as Luke decided to toast.

With a large gulp Sam slammed his mug down now a quarter of it gone his hand reached for the shot glasses which he placed in front of him and opened the bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey. Pouring a bit more of a standard shot into each glass Sam passed one to Luke and took a look at his and left it in front of him for the time being. ”Hope your taking a cab back right?” he asked as he looked down the sound of his voice becoming far less cheery.

”Supposing your right…” Sam said eyeing the amber-brown liquid in his shot glass. ”Just tell me you had a good reason you left, if you left for some less of a catastrophe our next Danger Room session will be one-on-one and I don’t play nice when it is one-on-one, ask Sara.”

Sam was still a bit hurt Luke left the way he did and for how long he had been gone. Sam needed him so many times, he missed so much, Romania, his eye, Alex… eyeing the glass of whiskey in front of him Sam picked it up and took a huge shot and swallowed whole with his expression hardly changing.

Sam was definitely more of a player than Luke was but at the same time Luke had to admit he had gone through his own time as a playboy. Part of it had been cover to help disguise his time as Wraith but still it had happened.

"A cab was most definitely in the plan." Luke agreed with a smile as he took the shot glass and lifted it up so he could smell the alcohol before lifting it up and tossing it down. "I am gonna be smashed by the time I leave here." Luke realized as he felt the whiskey burn its way down his throat before settling in his stomach as liquid fire. He could even remember the last time he had consumed large amounts of alcohol. Normally it was just a glass of wine with dinner or on even more rare occasions a mug of whatever the restaurant had on tap. Gulping down large amounts of hard liquor was not a regular occurrence.

"It was a good reason, it just took a lot longer than I ever expected." Luke said slowly as he set the shot glass back down and then reached over to once again grab his mug, "It started out as my having to travel to Europe for a couple of months. Those types of business trips had happened in the past but I knew I'd be coming back relatively soon. But after I got there, the whole thing with Romania happened. It threw most of Europe into chaos and I found that I was needed there. I never made it into Romania but I did travel from England to Greece for a while then on to Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Ukraine.

It had been a whirlwind of flights and train travel as he tried to touch and help where he could. Maybe he hadn't actually accomplished much or maybe he had. He would never really know for sure but he had known that at least he'd done something. "Once the situation in Romania calmed down there were still lots of clean up efforts in the other countries to try and make sure nothing like that could ever happen again. While many of the leaders I talked to were in complete agreement with that thought process there are still a few on the fence but only time will tell."

Lifting his mug Luke took a large swallow as he tried to think whether there was really anything else to tell. On his part, that had been in. Business meeting intermixed with meeting about the mutant situation. "I'm going to guess that you were probably on the front lines in Romania just like usual?"

The golden amber in the mug lit under the dim lighting over head as Luke told his story the reason he was gone like he was, it made sense not everyone could have been where he had been nor did he want anyone else to go through what he had to do. Mercenaries, refugees, long sleepless nights, pretending that you were somebody important, pretending that you could sleep in a five star hotel long enough to catch your breath so you could deal with all the panic and mass disorder of Romania. In short it was a nightmare and that was before the camps.

His eye was still fixed on the golden amber the shifted and moved when he lifted the mug, down it went as he attempted to wash away all the feelings he had been suppressing from Romania. This was the first time he had talked about it, it was the reason he was so glad to have Luke back. Ghost was married now and living at the clinic so he didn’t want to bother her with his feelings and problems. Luke however, it was something he was asking for something he had started a conversation with, so he wanted to know everything. The mug was placed down as his hand reached up to his left eye, his bad eye.

The black cloth of the patch under his fingertips didn’t do much when he pressed his fingers against it softly; all it did was make him remember things that ought to not be remembered. Sam was silent for a moment when Luke asked him if he was on the front lines. Faces flashed momentarily across his vision and he looked at the darker amber in the shot glass. Taking a quick swig he opened his mouth and pulled back his lips as he loosened his tongue. He wasn’t one to talk about his feelings never had been, everyone else had problems of their own so why should he burden them with his stories, his nightmares.

But it was Luke, and Luke was different from others, ”Front lines…” he nodded his head slightly his face serious with no trace of a smile, ”Front lines, behind enemy lines… we were all over the place, went where we were needed did all we could do.” he paused and refilled his shot glass and debated taking another shot but set the bottle and looked up to Luke for a moment. ”Some of the roughest moments of my life happened there…” his hand left the table and trailed up to his patched eye again. ”Not sure if you can tell but I lost my eye there…” he shook his head for a second, ”Correction,” he said a smile peeking from the straight laced face, ”I know where it is so lost isn’t the right word, it was taken from me… that among with other things…”

He looked down at the shot glass again and threw the drink into the back of his throat and slammed the glass back down, ”Sleepless nights, hours and hours of tracking, being tracked, border hopping running, it came to a halt when parliament was blown up, we went to help and just like that we found ourselves in the camps…” he looked back at the bottle as if ashamed of what happened. ”In all honesty I wanted to be in the camps, from the stories everyone tells me about when the camps happened here in the states it was the first place I wanted to go, it was a place I felt I could do the most good but…” he shrugged and looked down at his hands, ”Still didn’t turn out how I thought it would go… it got complicated…”

He paused again and let out a loud sigh lifting the mug again, hoping he could wash the feelings that he was bubbling to the surface again, pain, fear, heartache... ”I never let anyone know how scared I was, I didn’t even let my self know, they had me on the construction crew, always moving and digging, but every now and then I caught a glimpse of someone from the team, and immediately I felt more guilty than I have ever felt in my life.” he paused again and lifted his shoulders as he slammed the rest of his beer, ”Feel like it’s my fault they all got put into the camps… I know we were there to help but I sometimes feel like putting them through that was the worst thing I could have ever done to the team…” he fell silent and sighed placing the now empty mug on the table, ”Lame to admit it but I needed someone to tell me that what I was doing however hard it might have been was still the right thing to do…”

Sam was silent for several moment and then he began to speak. It was like Luke had expected but it still hurt to hear about what his friends had gone through while he had behind the scenes working. Sam, and who knew how many others, had given everything they had to regain mutant rights. Sam had even had his eye 'taken' as he described it.

"I missed the camps here in the states too." Luke said quietly, immediately falling silent again as Sam continued his story. Lifting his refilled shot glass Luke drained it was he tried to understand what it was that Sam was looking for.

He was searching for justification and absolution. He was searching for someone to tell him that he had made the right choices. People always talked about how when you looked back your vision was 20/20 but that wasn't always true. Some situation were never clear no matter how far in the past they might be.

"You never needed someone to tell you it was the right thing." Luke said quietly, his sunglass covered gaze locked on his friend, "You may want someone to tell you everything's OK and that you did the right thing but I know you Sam. No matter what sort of bull people may try to give you what really matters is what's in your heart. You don't need me to tell you that it was the right choice because you already know it was. Even will all that chaos that you and the rest of the team went through you know it was the right thing."

This was Luke's mission. It wasn't his job to convince Sam of everything, it was only his job to make Sam recognize what he already knew. Had there been a fall out from what happened? Of course... there always was in situations like this but that didn't make it any less worthwhile.

"The rest of the team knew what might happen and if they had been in your position you know that every one of them would have made the same choice. We as X-Men didn't sign up because we wanted to walk through daisies we signed up to deal with things that others can't handle." Even as Luke spoke he continued focusing on Sam's face, looking for some hint of agreement or recognition in his expression. This was the life blood of what Sam stood for. "Suffering comes to everyone and while some can't handle it, and some can only bear, others are made to fight it. You, me, the rest of the X-Men, that's what we do."

A sad smile touched his lips when he lifted the shot glass and took a swig, ”I know they would have, but that was what I needed to hear… could have used you there…” he said with a small nod and then the motion of his hand to the bottle as he filled it up again. ”It doesn’t help much when you got some of the older team members who were on the team before us to take orders from me, a few of them are down right pissed I got bumped up…” he said with a small smirk, sure he wasn’t happy that there was some disorder and rough feelings when he got bumped up but when he had Luke here telling him what he needed to here it made their comments and feelings about him running the show seem insignificant.

”It’s what we do but it doesn’t mean it is easy…” he paused looking at the golden brown shot in front of him not ready to throw it back just yet, ”We got a batch of new recruits, hard to believe that we are training some of these kids for shit like that… I thought I was young but I got four years on Gawain and Twyla…” he trailed off and then looked up to add, ”Two of my new favorite students, but don’t tell them.” Sam said as he lifted his finger to his lips, ”The last thing Gawain needs to hear is something like that,” now smirking Sam added, ”I want you to have a few training sessions with them, you know just to get your feet wet for when I toss you on team leader duties.”

Lifting the shot glass up to cheers to Luke he kicked it back and laughed, ”Other than the fiasco in Romania and a few new recruits things with the police have gone along swimmingly, they even have their own mutant division so I have been told.” Sam laughed slightly and then placed his hands on the table, ”On a more personal matter I just dumped Haley, saw her with her ex and well… you know how the story goes….” Sam said shrugging now as all the shots he had taken done their job on loosening his lips.

"I wish I had been there for you and everyone Sam." Luke replied quietly before taking another swallow from his mug and then eyeing the empty shot glass that sat beside it. Should he refill it? He wasn't much on drinking the hard stuff like this so maybe he better stay away from it unless Sam decided to refill them again. "Even though I know I was doing something it still felt pretty useless to be stuck in the position I was."

And then the conversation moved on to more pleasant subjects. Apparently there were new recruits to the X-Men, which shouldn't come as a surprise after how long he'd been gone. When he'd been active in the states new recruits had been coming in rather steadily so why should now be different?

"Sounds like this Gawain is something like you when you were a bit younger if I'm reading your comments correctly." Luke said with a laugh, "And I'd be glad to have some training sessions with them. I always enjoy meeting knew people and learning about them."

And things were staying in light territory until they talked about... Haley? Who the heck was Haley? "I know how the basic story goes but I'm missing a few details on this one. What happened between you and Alex? Last I knew you two were hot and heavy. Heck, I thought you two were great for each other."

Ok, so maybe he wasn't known for his match making ability but there was a mystery here. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Alex since he returned to the mansion and noone that he had asked about her knew anything. Surely Sam would have more information since they had been so close. Wouldn't he?

If he had been drinking when Luke compared Gawain to a younger version of himself he would have choked because he was trying hard not to laugh, but seeing as he had no drink in his mouth he let out a string of laughter that ended abruptly, ”Maybe, he defiantly gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar than I did as a kid but yeah I guess if you think about it our personalities are a bit alike.” it was true, when it was pointed out Gawain often smiled when he was getting in trouble (so all the time) just like he did as a kid. Sure Sam followed the rules more but if Gawain had a similar childhood to Sam’s it would be pretty hard to find a major difference in their ways.

Sam’s cheery disposition faded when Luke mentioned Alex and like a former alcoholic walking into the bar his mind fixed on one thing. Lifting the bottle of Jameson up in the air Sam looked at it and poured it into his shot glass, ”Gonna need another shot or two for this…” mumbled Sam more to himself than to Luke. It had been a long time since he had talked about Alex to anyone, was Mike the bartender the last one that heard his sob story? He didn’t know and didn’t really care this was a topic of conversation h didn’t talk about with just anyone.

A hand fixed around a now shot glass as he took a sip again, no longer was his good eye fixed on Luke but rather his hands one which was wrapped around the empty shot glass and the other was wrapped around the bottle of whiskey. ”Hot and heavy is a bit of an understatement…” he said as the grip around the bottle tightened as all the familiar feelings of loss and abandonment poured back into his mind something he had been trying to distract himself with for a while. ”Even after you vanished we were going strong, we were inseparable for the most part.” he paused for a second as a tear threatened to well up behind his good eye.

”We were together so much we almost knew each others schedules down to the letter, I’d walk out of my office and there she was just coming to find me, dinner, walks on the mansion grounds…” he sighed slightly and looked up trying to push the tear back, ”But things change, people change…” he filled up the shot glass and took another shot, ”Romania changed a lot of things, our relationship for the better surprisingly, when two people are put in a situation like that you really get to thinking of what was important…” he sighed again, ”Told her I loved her, she said she loved me…” he started to laugh again this time a more depressing one as the glass was filled.

Holding the shot glass up, he swirled the whiskey around for a second as his eye fixed on it, ”Soon as we got out of the camps she broke it off, she says it was to protect me but I think she was just scared of blaming her for the eye…” he cursed dropping the ‘F’ bomb and filled the shot glass up again, ”Still not over it… no matter what I try to tell myself…” he took the shot and shrugged to Luke, ”As long as we are talking about my depressing ass story what about you?” Sam asked figuring that Luke knew he was talking about his love life.