Family 10.4

** AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey there! I wanted to let you know that I've decided to publish the entire backlog of Rogue Evolution on my website, artoflupin.com. There you'll find chapters as far ahead as "Snow Fall 11.6", and in a couple of weeks, I plan on having the log on my website be a chapter ahead of any other site I post to!

If you'd prefer to wait for uploads here, no worries, uploads will continue here as scheduled.

Thanks! **

"Well," Scott clapped the dirt off his hands, "I'll give Banana this; he's durable. We made a ditch in a cow patch using him, and he only got a few scratches for the trouble."

Anna rolled out from under her car. "At least the mud is dry now. Makes it easier to pick out."

"I'm suprised you're bothering to pick out dirt from under a car."

"My baby deserves the best." She sat up and dropped a few handfuls of clumped grass and what she hopped were mud patches and not something more nefarious that would lurk in a cow patch in a bucket. She patted the space above the rear wheel. "The damn fender got caved in."

Scott rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and opened up the bottom drawer of a standing toolbox. "It's not that bad."

"Not that bad? I can fit my head in that thing and still have room!"

When Scott eventually joined her side, he had one of those stubby-looking drills and a funky rod with an angled hole on one end and a long metal roller on the other. He dropped the tools at the base of the wheel, pulled over the floor jack, and scooted over a stand with his foot. "Look out."

Anna moved out of his way, and he got to pulling the weight off the rear wheel with the floor jack and suspended the car in place with the stand. As fast as she had ever seen him, he stripped the wheel's lugnuts along with the rest of the wheel and secured the funky-looking roller thing in place. He placed the circle end where the wheel used to be and got to work shaping the fender back into place using the roller. After a couple of passes, the dented metal was back in place with nothing but a couple of creases to show there was ever a problem.

"Damn, Scott! I didn't know you were a fucking wizard!"

"Nothing magic about it. Just about having the right tool and the right know-how."

"And that 'know-how' was a long time coming for you, boy." Said a crunchy man's voice Anna had never heard in her life. She and Scott both poked their heads over the top of the car, and she spotted a man with salt-and-pepper slicked-back hair and a matching moustache dressed in a long beige jacket she had only ever seen Columbo wear.

"Dad?" Scott dropped his tools and stood. "H-Hey!" He circled the car and met the man in a mutual hug.

"How are you, my boy?" He patted Scott's back before letting go. "Still keeping up the family trade even all this way up in the fridged north, huh?"

"Dad, what are you doing here? You didn't call or mention anything about visiting or-"

"Son, don't tell me you forgot what next week is?" When the man watched Scott only stare back at him, he grinned and smacked him on the shoulder. "Thanksgiving! You think I wasn't going to see you during the holidays?"

"I-I'm sorry! I just - I wasn't expecting -"

The man walked past Scott, "What's her story?"

"Oh! Sorry, Dad, this is my friend Anna -"

"I was talking about the car, son." Once he was at Banana's hood, the man turned to Anna and gave her a tight-lipped smile plus a nod. "Though it is a pleasure, young lady. Douglass, Douglass MacArthur." He stripped his black leather gloves, popped the hood, and looked at the engine bay a beat. "Not bad, son. Even managed to get some of the rust out of this relic. I might have swapped out the intake for something a little more fresh, but couldn't have done much better myself." He lowered the hood most of the way and dropped it a few inches away from its latch to allow it to close securely.

"Thanks, Dad! We worked on it for hours, weeks even."

"I can tell." Douglass MacArthur dropped a hand on his son's shoulder. "Well done." Scott's smile was bright enough to look as if he were ready to burst into song.

"Mr MacArthur!" Jean appeared from the path toward the mansion dressed in a puffy red jacket. "I heard trouble rolled in."

"Jeanie girl! How are you!" When she was close enough, he hugged her and kissed her cheek. "Oh, now don't you look as lovely as ever!"

"I could say the same for you." He let her go, and his eyes flicked between Scott and Jean. "I hope you two haven't gotten into too much trouble since last I saw you both."

Jean gave him a polite little smile. "Only enough to keep it interesting."

"Oh, I bet!"

"Do you have any luggage to bring in, Dad?"

"A couple of things. A little German boy offered to take them up to my room. Still, got a few things I wanted to show you, Scotty!" He patted Scott on the back and coaxed him toward the door. "I look forward to catching up with you later, Jeanie!"

Jean waved a hand after them, "Have fun, you two!"

Anna waited till the pair were out of sight before she walked up and joined Jean's side. She didn't even get a chance to open her mouth before she heard, "fucking leach," slip from Jean's lips.

Anna pulled the unzipped flanks of her hoodie tight around her body and crossed her arms. "Not a fan of Mister Douglas MacArther, are you?"

"The man is a chovanist, blood sucking bigot who only comes around to pick up Scott just high enough so can break another piece off him when suddenly drops him later. He's managed to work the capitalist game well enough to make a profit off the broken backs of his employees and have a nice house in Miami, but it's not a mansion like Xavier's, so he has to come by everyonce in a while to gladhand like he's buddies with the guy so he can feel important. Then once he's got his high of living off of Xavier's generosity and crushing his stepson's spirit for the umpteenth time, he goes back home and doesn't call or text Scott till he needs another hit."

"Jesus, tell me how you really feel." Anna blinked. "Wait, stepdad… that's right, they don't have the same last names."

"That's right. Scott's real dad is a whole lot like his stepdad in the way he likes to disappear. Nice thing about the birth dad, however, is he had the courtesy of staying gone." Jean narrowed her eyes. "McArther just found a woman he wanted to get with and decided to deal with the baggage in the form of a kid. And believe me, he made sure Scott knew he was baggage growing up. He never even officially adopted Scott, hence why he's still a Summers."

"Then," Anna snorted and splayed her hands in front of her, "Why is he dealing with that idiot? Why are we even letting MacArthor on the property?"

Jean gave a sort of punctuated sigh. "Because Scott loves him. Or has convinced himself he loves him."

"But he's so clearly-"

"An asshole?" Jean shrugged and shook her head. "As far as he sees it, he's one of the two people he has left in his life for family. MacArthor and his Mom. No uncles, not aunts, no cousins, just the three of them." Jean looked at Anna and something on her face must have resonated with Jean.

"Look, no one here is on that guy's side. He wants to play dad for Thanksgiving, whatever. He will do his thing, it'll be breif, then he'll leave. Then we can move on with our life like we always have."

"What about Scott?"

"We've all tried talking to Scott. He won't hear it. This is just something he's going to have to figure out for himself."

A load of sharp, mishapened bricks dumped on Anna's chest and shoulders hearing that. She had the sudden compulsion to steal Scott away in the night, stuff him in Banana's trunk, and drive as far away from here as possible. If only family problems were ever that easy.

Anna didn't notice Jean had started walking away till she turned back. "Hey," She pointed her chin towards Banana, "Thanks for including him in the car thing. It's meant the world to him."

"He told you that?"

"It's all he's talked about for a month." She gave Anna a knowing little grin, "Thanks for giving him another chance, Anna."

"It's me who should be thankful. No way I could have figured this out on my own."

Jean turned, gave her a wave, and walked up the hill. Anna leaned on Banana's hood, stared at nothing in particular a moment before saying, "the air intake isn't that bad."