Jimmy Proudstar is aware that he's a sucker for lost causes. Hell he was on the first X-Force and honestly the current roster was making him long for the good old days. He might even take Maria back if it meant getting rid of Laura. The kid drove him fucking crazy. He was aware he was still a sucker for a lost cause, because otherwise he wouldn’t currently be stuck in a tiny ass closet with Theresa Rourke Cassidy.
When the day had started he hadn’t this was where it was headed. He thought maybe for once the day would actually go well. Of course not, from the fact that Summers was making them work with Jamie Madrox and his new and “improved” X-Factor, but on top of that, Terry was here. He hadn’t spoken to Terry since the original X-Force. He’d thought about reaching out when the news about her dad had come out, but she’d dropped off of the face of the Earth and he hadn’t had any way to do it.
Logan hated him which wasn’t news to Jimmy but he’d thought Neena at least would have tried to make him stop. But no Logan had gleefully let Jimmy and Terry know they were the team in charge of infiltrating the facility and surveillance to find a hard drive. Terry’s jaw had clenched slightly at the news and Jimmy had tried to make Neena tell Logan to switch the teams around. Neena had told him to man the fuck up and figure out his problem with Terry. So now, here they were in the facility barely having said more than a handful of words to each.
Jimmy couldn’t help but stare at Terry, obviously when she wasn’t looking. She’d never needed him looking at her when they’d been friends, maybe something more on X-Force. She most certainly didn’t need it now. Terry had all but ignored him since they’d met up to scout out the target. She looked different from the new costume that, in Jimmy's opinion, was ridiculous to the way she held herself.
“And you used to make fun of me for running around calling myself my dead brother's name.” Jimmy mutters, mostly to himself.
Terry bristles, she clearly heard him. Jimmy can’t even bring himself to feel sorry about it.
“Yeah well, you looked ridiculous running around in his hand me downs too.” She bit back.
“No more ridiculous than the outfit you're wearing now.” Jimmy wasn’t going to hold back on her. “You shopping at Hot Topic or something now?”
Terry turned to him, clearly about to give him a piece of her mind when Jimmy saw movement behind her. He could make out two hostiles walking towards them. In a split second Jimmy saw there was only one way out and grabbed Terry much to the Irish woman's surprise and quickly pushed her into a nearby closet shutting the two of them in. Then because he could see the surprise and anger on Terrys face, he put his hand over her mouth.
Terry heard the two guards moving around outside the closet but she could barely focus on that because of how distracted she was. It was all the fault of the man in front of her. The one person she’d never truly been able to get over. James Proudstar had always been complicated to her, complicated because of her feelings for him and complicated because of her inability to act on those feelings. Jimmy had been there for her throughout her drinking, her withdrawal, and everything between during X-Force. She’d never really managed to tell him how much that had meant to her. The closest she’d come was that night after she’d thought he was dead.
Now with him standing over her, practically pressing her into the wall with his hand over her mouth she couldn’t figure out what to say to him. They’d left so much unsaid after X-Force had disbanded and so much had happened she didn’t know where to start. So she settled for doing what she did best. Being a complete and utter dick. She licked his hand.
“Did you seriously just do that?” Jimmy asks in shock.
Terry manages to reach up and pull his hand off her mouth.
“It’s what you get you asshole.” She hisses back.
“What is your problem Cassidy, huh?” Jimmy whispers back exasperated.
“Could you move back a little you giant oaf!”
“If you hadn’t noticed, this is a tiny ass closet and I’m not exactly small.” Jimmy snaps back.
“Well maybe if you lay off the sweets,” Terry taunts, she doesn’t know why she always does this. Feels the need to pick a fight with him instead of just telling him how she feels. It's always how it’s gone with the two of them.
“Well, I’ve had a lot to deal with recently so forgive me if that wasn’t the first thing on my mind Theresa.”
The use of her name, not the nickname snaps Terry out of the angry funk she’d put herself in. Guiltily she remembered the death of Caliban, another man that Jimmy had considered a brother who'd been lost to him. Then he’d had to kill his brother again to free him from Selene. God she was an asshole starting in on him.
“I was sorry to hear about Caliban.” Terry whispers. “And I’m sorry about your brother.”
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter.” Jimmy was slower to anger with her than he was with most people, but when he got good and angry there was little that could make him stop.
“I should have been there.” Terry replies. What she doesn’t say is that she feels she should have been there for him in the same way he’d always been there for her.
“You're not my babysitter anymore Terry, Cable relieved you of that responsibility.” Jimmy’s still unwilling to let his anger just go.
“If that's what you think we were to each other then, maybe we might as well not even have this conversation.” Terry’s mad again now.
“What we were to each other?” Jimmy asks incredulously. “What were we to each other exactly Terry cause as far as I remember we were teammates and nothing more. That's what you wanted and I respected that.”
“Jimmy you know that,” Terry stops and sighs. “You know why I did what I did, I couldn't risk
what we had.”
“Yeah, you don’t need to remind me.” JImmy cuts her off before she can continue.
“Hey,” Terry reaches up to cup his face with one hand and pulls it down so that he’s looking at her. “I was wrong, I’ve missed you Jimmy. Like I’ve been missing a limb, you were the best thing that's ever happened to me.”
“Don’t,” Jimmy’s voice is thick with emotion. “Don’t say stuff like that if you don’t mean it.”
“Jimmy,” Terry reaches her other hand up to cup his face. “I’d say there's not much else we can do to mess this up.”
He doesn’t respond, just leans down and kisses her. It’s not like the I’m glad your not dead kisses that they’d shared all those years ago in New Mexico. No, this kiss was bruising, both of them pouring years worth of pent up emotions into it. It was full of regret and anger and pure lust, but underneath it there were still the feelings that both had tried to suppress for so many years.
Jimmy hitched Terry’s leg up and she quickly took the hint wrapping her legs around him. He lifted her up and pinned her back against the wall of the closet giving the two of them a better angle to work with. Terry raked her hands through his hair as one of Jimmy’s hands stayed firmly planted on her ass and the other roamed all across her body. Terry broke off the kiss for a minute to rest her head against the wall and Jimmy immediately began to kiss at her jaw and neck. All of the sensations were so much that it took Terry a moment to process what was happening.
“No marks.” She breathes out.
Jimmy leans back to look at her neck and jaw and then gives her an entirely unapologetic smirk. “A little late for that unfortunately.”
Terry wants to yell at him and remind him that not everyone has a healing factor that will make hickeys disappear in minutes, but before she can voice her complaints, his lips are back on hers and she finds it hard to think about anything other than him. The two of them are so preoccupied with each other that they don’t even notice the closet door being opened.
“What the hell?.” Warren Worthington stares at the two of them clearly more than a little shocked.
“Uhh,” Jimmy starts but he’s cut off by a camera click.
Laura is standing a little behind Warren holding up a phone and smirking. “Whoops” She chortles.
Terry slides off Jimmy with as much dignity as she can manage in this particular circumstance. Jimmy is completely ignoring Warren, focusing his glare insead on Laura.
“Delete that now.” He growls at the younger girl.
“I already sent it to Sam.” Laura’s grin somehow becomes even wider. She then promptly turns and runs.