Title: Gut 
Author: ebonbird
Fandom: X-Men

"No."  Relief rushes through me cooling and sweet.  "She kept me up all night."

I'm looking at my husband out of the corner of my eyes.  I was about to kiss him.  That 
beautiful mouth of his is like marble.  Like I've never kissed it.  Like he's never kissed 
me. Whimper.

Goddamn Emma.

Goddamn Scott.

Goddamn me.

Goddamn EMMA!

Our boddies collide, I've got him against the door.  My arm across his throat and his back 
against the door.  I can feel the weight of his stair.  "We are still married!  I am not giving 
up on us!"

Nothing.  Not a twitch in his jaw, not a bob in his adam's apple.  Nothing.  No one.

I pry his mind open like an egg, "Is that what you want?!" I'm screaming, "Silence!  
Take it!  Take it!" And I feed it back to him, my grief, my guilt, my joy at having him 
back, my sorrow.  

"I am not giving up on us!  You can't make me.  Talk to me, Scott, talk to me you bast-"

I'm on the floor before I can say another word.  I don't know how I go there.

He leans forward and says, "I'm done.

"I'm not going to autopsy this with you."

"What about our vows!  You're not the man I thought you were!  What about our vows!  
We're married!  We've come through so much!  I don't know -- how can you –"

"Madeleine."

His first wife.

And I hear my mother's voice hesitant in the weeks following the announcement of our 
engagement.  "Darling, your father and I were invited to his first wedding – we couldn't 
bear to go.  A man who would do this to his wife – what makes you think he wouldn't do 
the same to you?"

"First time in my life, Jean.  Who were you kidding.  I left Maddy.  I loved Maddy.  I 
loved you."