needsaparrot | MCA0: Sunday Morning

If Xander's holding onto Bridge a little tighter in his sleep than he normally would on Sunday morning, there's nothing strange about that from his point of view. Given all that went on this week, wouldn't you?

bridge_carson	There isn't really anything that strikes Bridge as being weird, either. After all, he's waking up next to the person he's woken up with for nearly the last two decades. Nothing at all unusual about that, right? "Morning," Bridge murmurs, not actually opening his eyes since the late portal the two of them are supposed to catch back to Fandom for the reunion isn't scheduled for another few hours yet.
needsaparrot	"Mmmrph," is Xander's attempt at an eloquent riposte.
bridge_carson	"Uh huh, exactly," Bridge agrees.
needsaparrot	Something's a little off there, to Xander. Bridge's voice is... lower? Rougher? After listening with varying levels of paranoia for a week, he's apparently oversensitive even when mostly-asleep. Xander yawns and reaches up to rub at his uncovered eye. "Y'kay?" he mutters.
bridge_carson	And there's the suspicion that something, possibly, is not-quite-right that's beginning to filter in through Bridge's mind. "Yeah-huh," he replies. "Why wouldn't I be?"
needsaparrot	"Oh, I dunno, maybe pla~~aaaaa~~gue?" Xander tightens his arm around Bridge for a moment, eye still closed. "Everybody almost dying tends to make a guy jumpy."
bridge_carson	"Plague?" Yeah, now he's really confused. The only plague he remembers is the one from twenty years ago, now.
needsaparrot	"....Did you forget who you are again?" He'd rather think it's that than let his mind wander to the possibility that Bridge isn't as cured as everyone was supposed to be. Xander opens his eye now. And stares.
bridge_carson	"Officer Bridge Carson, SPD," Bridge replies. "Last I checked anyw..." he trails off as he opens his eyes. And then there is mutual staring.
needsaparrot	Wow. Xander is.... actually speechless. Lacking words of any sort, even the holywhatthefrakonastickwithasideofonionrings kind.
bridge_carson	"What happened to you?" Bridge finally manages. "You're, you're..." No, it hasn't dawned on him yet that this is not actually the bed he went to sleep in the night before.
needsaparrot	"Me? What happened to you? You're..." Not that the view is bad -- at all -- he's just... "Holywhatthefrakonastickwithasideofonionrings!" Huh, so apparently he didn't actually lack those words.
bridge_carson	"Nothing's wrong with me!" Bridge insists. "You're the one who woke up all- hey, wait a second. This isn't our room," he says suspiciously. In fact it looks a lot like the bedroom in a certain apartment that he last remembers staying in sometime oh, approximately nineteen years ago.
needsaparrot	"It's my room. Not that you don't spend a lot of time in it and as far as I'm concerned I can build you a wardobe let alone give you a drawer, but I think the question we're supposed to be asking here is less one of real estate and more one of WHY ARE YOU SUDDENLY IN YOUR THIRTIES?"
bridge_carson	"I'm thirty-seven, which, if you do the math, means I've been thirty-something for seven years. I'd hardly call that sudden."
needsaparrot	"Fine, excuse me, wrong question. WHY ARE YOU THIRTY-SEVEN?" Xander sits up, scooting away from him. "You're some Bridge from another universe and I'm in bed with you. Crap. Crap. Crap. Great. Crap. He's gonna give me the sad puppy look until I'm eighty."
bridge_carson	"Uh, because my birthday's not for another few weeks?" Bridge tries. "And hey, let's not jump to conclusions here. I mean, maybe someone just turned back time. Again. Though why they'd turn you back and not me is anyone's guess."
needsaparrot	"What d'you mean turned back time? Trust me, I know from time-travel, and I'm right where I went to sleep last night." Xander points around the room. "My desk, my dresser, my frog, my...other frog."
bridge_carson	"Well if this was the work of the Rock of Time or the Orb of Doom or something similar, naturally your memories would also regress to whatever time period we were taken back to. But the question is... why didn't I regress too? Unless my morpher somehow prevented it from affecting me, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, it's why the original Rangers retained their memories when Master Vile reversed the flow of time- wait, no, no, the reunion, it's supposed to start today, maybe you can take the Ranger out of Fandom but you can't take Fandom out of the Ranger, so somehow a Fandom Reunion means I end up... reuniting with a Fandom from twenty years ago. Of course." Bridge babbles.
needsaparrot	Xander peers at him, inching closer again. "Well, you're definitely Bridge."
bridge_carson	"I don't think that was ever in doubt..." Bridge blinks. "So. Uh. What year is it?"
needsaparrot	"It's so weird not to be the one asking that question." Xander? Freaked the hell out by looking at a Bridge who's ten years older than him? Little bit, yeah. "2007. Almost my birthday."
bridge_carson	"2007. You're so going to kill me when I get back." Bridge shakes his head. "This is so... you look so young and wow that's just the weirdest thing ever for me to be saying to you of all people."
needsaparrot	Xander unconsciously purses his lips, because for all his crap routine about being decrepit, he still has to ask, "So I'm all old and wrinkly where you're from?"
bridge_carson	"Totally," Bridge informs him solemnly. "Your hair fell out about, what? three, four years ago now, I think?" It's entirely possible that in two decades he's managed to get in a bit of practice at the teasing thing.
needsaparrot	Xander blinks slowly at him. Getting past the oh, okay, Fandom weirdness part and attempting actual math. "At forty-six?"
bridge_carson	"What can I say?" Bridge shrugs. "Practical joke gone wrong, and after that it just never grew back. Must've been the stress involved with raising a teenage daughter."
needsaparrot	It's hard to say what's contributing more to Xander's befuddled stare: the fact that he still doesn't know whether to take Bridge seriously - because it's not like his dad's not rockin' the prematurely receding hairline thing - or the second part of his statement. "Teenage...?"
bridge_carson	"Well, yeah," Bridge says. "Kids grow up. It's what they do."
needsaparrot	Not all of them, Xander can't help thinking, the events of last week competing for space in his head with a future that might not even be his - no matter how much he wants it to be. "Bronwyn?" he asks, because that'll at least prove...something.
bridge_carson	"Got it in one," Bridge says, the grin on his face consisting of enough wattage to possibly power all of Fandom for a week.
needsaparrot	Xander's could give it a run for its money in dorktasticness. "I saw her when she was five," he says, like Bridge wouldn't know that, considering he was there.
bridge_carson	"I know," Bridge says. "I was there too, remember? Actually, I was there when she came back as well. She didn't stop talking about it for days."
needsaparrot	"Yeah?" Xander laughs. "Does she ever stop talking about anything for very long?" he asks, remembering the chatterbox she'd been at five.
bridge_carson	Bridge looks thoughtful. "While she's asleep? Most of the time, anyway."
needsaparrot	Xander leans back against the headboard, vaguely aware of the ridiculousness of having this conversation where and how they're having it, but getting into the acceptance of yet another Fandom Giveth moment, after all of the recent taketh-away. "I can't picture her much taller than my knees," he admits.
bridge_carson	"It's possible I can help with that," Bridge says. "Uh. If whatever brought me back here was also kind enough to bring my- oh, good," he says, peering over the edge of the bed and catching sight of a familiar red and grey uniform. Sliding out from under the covers, he goes over to rifle through the pockets, coming up with a wallet. "Here," he says, handing Xander a photograph.
needsaparrot	Xander's... a little too busy staring at the...un-uniformity to look down at the photo. "You, uh, filled out. Possibly in triplicate. And then got yourself notarized."
bridge_carson	Bridge grins at him. "And now you know how I felt, the first time I, ah... saw you, after you came back."
needsaparrot	Xander frowns. "You're not missing any bits, right?"
bridge_carson	"Well, no. There was a close call with my fingers and a piranha monster once, though. Luckily it wasn't a big fan of leather so it abandoned that idea pretty quick."
needsaparrot	"His loss, clearly." And that's Xander shutting his mouth on pointing out that he's a fan of leather. As long as he's not the one who has to wear it. He looks down at the photo instead. "Oh. Oh, wow." It hits him in a wave, when he sees her grown older, how much he misses her. How much she looks like them both now, where before, he could only see Bridge. Maybe because he couldn't let himself look for anything else back then.
bridge_carson	"Best thing that ever happened to me," Bridge grins. "Well, okay, tied for best. But she wouldn't be possible without you in the equation, so I pretty much consider myself the luckiest person ever since I managed to end up with the package deal."
needsaparrot	Xander smiles and runs a finger over the edge of the photograph. "I miss her," he admits. Even if it's obviously more complicated than just 'missing' somebody who doesn't exist yet.
bridge_carson	"I know," Bridge says. "I did too, right up until we finally got to bring her home with us." He looks through the wallet, carefully selecting a couple more pictures. "That one's from a couple years ago, these are a bit more recent," he tells Xander.
needsaparrot	Xander looks at his daughter peeking over Bridge's shoulder, and the second one, there on a balcony with NewTech City behind her, and something catches in his breath. That's tomorrow. Like Cable had said at the memorial service yesterday. Even if it's years in the future, this isn't just something that might happen if he's lucky - it's what he wants them to make happen. Together. Not that he's got words to say any of that, around the lump in his throat.
bridge_carson	Bridge just watches as Xander looks over the pictures, and then reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. "By the way?" he says quietly, waiting until he has Xander's attention before he breaks into a mischievous grin. "I was kidding, you know. About the hair thing."
needsaparrot	"The falling out, or the not growing back?"
bridge_carson	"Now that would just be telling."