[CENTER][hr][/center][sup][h1][center][img]https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/havok-uncanny-avengers.-main.jpg[/img][/center][b][center][color=black] H A V O K[/color]
[color=#7DF9FF]H A V O K[/color][/center]
[/b][/h1][/sup][indent][sub][COLOR=#7DF9FF][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] The Raft - Visiting Room[/sub][sup][right][COLOR=#7DF9FF][b]Post #2:[/b][/COLOR] As Long As It Takes[/right][/sup][/indent][hr]

[indent][quote][b][sub]Last Month -- 2023[/sub][/b][hr]
[color=68AF5F]“I’m not cut out to be a teacher.”[/color]

Past Alex had rolled his eyes at Lorna's detail of Xavier coming down on her in front of Scott and Jean. It was exactly those kind of moments that had Alex questioning the Professor's sense of privacy. [color=#7DF9FF]"So be angry,"[/color] he'd then answered, with a shrug, [color=#7DF9FF]"chances are the kids are feeling that, too. Some of 'em. Maybe they don't need 'better examples' like Scott or Jean, but someone who gets it where they are. Like you.'[/color][/quote][/indent]


Occasionally Alex would question to himself between visits what Lorna was getting out of this. He reasoned he must be giving her something that kept her coming back, and usually settled the matter in his mind on that thought. But then the next time, he'd see that look on her face, or hear that tone in her voice, or maybe she'd outright [i]say it[/i] again, and he'd wonder if the only reason she kept coming was to hear him say things he never was. 

To be fair he [i]tried[/i]. To explain--

[indent][quote][b][sub]First Visit -- Feb. 2018[/sub][/b][hr]
The Alex of five years ago [i]-clean-shaven, more weight on him, better muscle tone-[/i] reflexively ducked as the chair swung overhead by his girlfriend's magnetic force. He honestly didn't know if she'd meant to hit him and just missed or if it was a wild throw. He didn't respond to the action -much ([i][color=#7DF9FF]"Jeeze!"[/color][/i])- just her words -he understood where she was coming from in that moment better than she understood where he was: [color=#7DF9FF]"I wasn't [i]tricked[/i], Lorna! I knew what I was doin' I just didn't see far enough...I didn't mean to do anything to [b][i]you[/i][/b]."[/color] He was still smarting from the reality hit and at once felt guilty and angry -- to make her feel like this, but that he'd be grouped in with Magneto like this now -whether Lorna meant it that way or not, he heard it: her father had abandoned her and now he was. Except he [i]wasn't.[/i] [color=#7DF9FF]"[i]Damnit..[/i] --I'm [i]not[/i] a hero, okay. Thanks for thinking it -but I have to be here."[/color]
[/quote][/indent]

--he didn't have the words that first time, and subsequent attempts weren't much better; his reasoning kept getting garbled on its way from his mind to hers. 
The conversation came to exist in an [i]unspoken[/i] way. Looks exchanged, often at the end of a visit. 

But we're not there yet.

[quote][color=#68AF5F]“The Professor took me off the team. Told me I was no good.”[/color][/quote]
Alex's body language showed what he thought before he spoke it, not that Lorna would've seen, the way she was staring down at the table. 
His hands shifted after that. As per the rules -which the guards [i]still[/i] droned each visitation; Alex hardly heard them anymore- he had to keep his hands on the table. On [i]his side[/i] of it. And it was times like these he wished he could reach across; his hands shifted uselessly. 

So he used his voice, instead: [color=#7DF9FF]"Hey, look up,"[/color] it wasn't a command, he just couldn't stand to see her looking so shamefaced --internalizing [i]other people's[/i] opinion of her. 

Alex wanted her to look at him so she'd know he wasn't talking bull when he said: [color=#7DF9FF]He's a short-sighted mold-maker, that's what he is. Jeeze -just 'cause you're not on his honor roll like Scott and Jean?"[/color] He sat back, [color=#7DF9FF]"but I guess even that doesn't count for much, I mean something like this I'd think was Leader Scottie's decision first, huh?"[/color] He assumed Xavier must've gone over his brother's head. Alex knew Scott chewed Lorna out when she "messed up" -that was just Scott- but he wasn't entertaining this decision had been a mutual one.