Dedications: To Timey, Threnny, DE, dominika, and Ali for the beta's. And, to Tresstress because your standards are so damn high.

Notes: This is the third story in my, apparent, series. It follows Stress Fracture and Chiaroscuro in continuity. I decided that poor Nate'ums deserved a little break. A body can only take *so* much mental anguish before... well, he turns into Nate'ums.

This little thing also outlines a little theory I've had for a long time. Look back at the comics, kids, it's actually substantiated. (Finally a reason to bless the artist-go-round that was X-Force and Cable continuity.)

I woke up this morning with a feeling I haven't had in years.

Mornings are, as a general rule, something to be despised above all else. The only thing that makes them even remotely bearable is that coffee is a social more associated with them. There's just something entirely too cheerful about anything that penetrates my brain before 3pm.

I didn't notice it at first. The feeling I mean. Everything was pretty normal.

Those evil bloody birds that no one will let me vaporize were doing their thing in a tree outside the window. There is only one thing worse than mornings. Things that LIKE mornings. But NO... Nate is just overreacting when he wants to blow a damn tree full of cutey-wootie little rats with wings off the face of the earth. Them and rats. That's what killed Europe. But is that what the women in this house see?

Noooo.

They just see a guy with a pulse rifle ready to vaporize a sweet little birdie. Bloody birds.

But this morning... *This* morning was different. Special. Even with the damn birds.

So there I was, flat on my back in my nice comfortable bed. The flonqing birds were singing, the sun was shining, and every little thing was happily shouting that it was the start of a new day. Me and my coffee-deprived brain were all ready to start the normal routine of grope and stumble towards the holy grail, also known as the coffee pot, when we noticed something.

We were covered in hair. Inky, thick, beautiful strands that were wrapped completely around the upper half of my body. It only took me ten seconds to realize that I was not stuck in some kind of weird trap and that that black mane was actually attached to a head. A very nice, very special head.

Domino's head.

It's not like I didn't know she was there. Of course not. I'm too much of a soldier not to notice a hundred plus pounds of person pressed up against me. Add to that the amazing shape carrying that weight and I were doing some pretty energetic acrobatics last night... Well, let's just say that the person wasn't a surprise. Just the hair. Must have come out of its braid while we were doing our nightly cover fight.

We've been back together for almost three years now. We have a daughter. We have a house. We own a flonqing lawn mower. By now, one'd think I'd have realized that my life is actually cruising along at a calm, wonderful clip. Then again, I'd be the first one to point out just how many blows to the head I've received in my overly long life. Well, maybe second. Dom's gotten better at pointing out my flaws as time's gone by. Stab her eyes.

Anyway, life is good, life is great. Now why am I so surprised at finding myself cocooned in hair?

Because until this very moment, I never realized just how good things are going between Dom and me.

Bear with me here. This is gonna be a bit tricky to explain.

I've always known what's going on in my relationship with Domino by the length of her hair. When I first met the woman, it was shortish. Not too long, not a crew-cut. As the missions went by and the niceties of formal contact were dispensed, it got a bit longer. By the time we actually ended up sharing a bed, it was down to mid-back. It wasn't until after that first, desperate time that I realized how long it was. And it was only after a drunken, philosophically ponderous evening that I figured out just what it meant.

That's why it hurt so much to see it so short when she joined X-Force. But that wasn't her, was it?

Vanessa isn't someone we talk about anymore. Even when it was a prominent issue, we didn't really talk about it. What was there to say? I'm sorry? Sorry really does have no meaning in circumstances like that. How can you apologize for not realizing the woman you were sharing your life with really wasn't the woman you thought? What do you do? It's pretty moot now. We've all made our peace with it, as best we can. We had no choice. It was a bad situation. One where no one walked away clean.

But later, after Dom, the real one, came back... I knew things weren't *bad*. Her hair was long... how could they be? Hell, that time with X-Force, before everything went to hell in a hand-basket, was golden. It was us against the world... And we were winning.

Well, let's just say her hair about hit her ankles.

And then there was M'kran.

Isn't that usually the way? Stuff is going along at a nice peaceful clip, and some weird cosmic crystal destroys the world. Or tries to. And there you are, in a nice happily physical relationship with your best friend. Some things are left unsaid, but that's okay, because there's gonna be time to do everything. Then there isn't. Then you tell her. And she tells you.

And then someone goes and saves the day.

She lost about two feet of hair after that.

Bloody stupid crystal.

If there is one thing in this world that Dom doesn't do well, it's owning up to emotion. Not that I blame her. We've tromped through each other's skulls a few times. She's seen my shit, and I've seen enough of hers to completely understand why actually admitting things is damn scary.

But it didn't end there. Of course not. I'm a Summers. We can't just have normal relationship issues. Noooo. We get to be universal whipping posts. We get to introduce our dead lovers to our current ones and see what happens.

At least neither of them was a clone of the other. Got one up on Dad there.

I never thought Domino would ever have to meet Aliya. Then again, I never thought *I* would see Aliya again. And lose her. Again. To myself. Do you know how completely evil that is? But for Dom...

She knows what losing Aliya did to me. She's had to deal with the knowledge that she's come second in my life for the entire time we've been together. I don't know how she can stand that. Then again, the man I am now is not the same man that loved the pretty red-haired girl who could kick his ass. Oh, I still love her. Aliya was my wife. No matter what happens, she will always have a place in my heart. Somewhere that no one else can touch.

But I have changed.

Right now, I'm the man who loves a woman with black hair who can kick my ass. I'd like to think Aliya would approve. She always did say I needed someone to keep me in line.

That trip to the future though...

It was then that I truly began to understand how deeply Dom did care for me. She was going to kill him. Stryfe. Stop everything before it went to hell. At the sacrifice of herself.

My younger self would never have gone back if she'd pulled that trigger. Dom knew that. She also knew that there was a huge chance if she blew Stryfe's brains out, she was blowing her own out too. And she was still going to.

Humbling isn't a strong enough word.

Things changed after that. I guess I failed some sort of test. Or passed it. You never do know with Dom. Hell, DOM rarely knows with Dom. We cooled off. Things shifted in our friendship. We weren't just friends in love anymore. We were lovers who were sometimes friends, and not quite sure how to handle that.

So we left things alone, and we ran away.

And Dom's hair got even shorter.

I knew when she walked out the door of the PacRat that she was going to leave. That day on the lawn, when she nearly stumbled out of those doors... I think I stopped breathing. I just knew.

That's why I didn't do anything when she walked away.

I don't want to make excuses, but I *am* going to bring up that impressive list of head-traumas again. Stupid doesn't even begin to cover it. And when she came back a few months later, what happened? We had a screaming match and she was nearly beaten to death.

And did I stay by her side and wait for her to wake up? Noooo. I went and beat someone up, opening the door for the mother of all bad things to come down the pike not two years later.

The next time we met, she kicked my ass. It was my own fault, really. I should have knocked. For awhile there, I kept asking myself why I *did* go back to X- Force. I should have concentrated harder on what I was doing. I let myself get distracted, and nearly killed.

But I had to see them. I had to know they were okay. I needed to look at something I'd done mostly right by... And instead I found a host of regrets.

Sorry has no meaning, right? Wishful thinking, I guess.

I fought so hard for so long, but in the end I lost sight of what I had been fighting for.

Peace.

The days that followed my last meeting with the kids... Hard is an understatement for those days. Soul-wrenchingly impossible is more accurate.

Things didn't change much after that for a long time. A really long time.

But they did. They always do. That's the nature of life. Always a tricky thing, that.

This morning, however, is very different because I woke up wrapped in three feet of gloriously long, beautiful hair.

Now, I'm a big guy. Summers genetics, more training sessions than I'd like to admit to and about a hundred pounds of metal'll do that to a body. It's not very easy for me to be enveloped by something. I'm usually the one doing the enveloping, if there's any to be done.

In fact, the last time I remember being enveloped in a hug was a few days before Slym and Redd left. It's very clear in my mind. They had been preparing for the final showdown with Apocalypse, though I didn't know it at the time, and had been busy for awhile. Hugs and small signs of affection were common in our home. I never realized how precious that was until it was gone.

But that day...

Slym knew it would be ending. Stab his eyes, he *knew*. Maybe some of Redd's pre-cog wore off on him over the years, but he knew.

I can still remember it. It was hot. Of course it was hot, it was *always* hot. The sky though... THAT was memorable. It was a rare thing to see a cloudless sky. Thanks to years of pollution, a slight haze usually covered the deep azure. That day though... The wind or temperature was just right, and not even the continual scum was absent. It was just so blue.

Slym had taken me outside for a short walk. He told me that it was a shame to waste such a day. He took me to the uppermost barrack genejokes like us could access and told me to look around. He said that I needed to remember this day and this place. I didn't think much of it. Slym...Scott was always telling me to remember things or places. It was what he did.

After a few minutes of idle conversation, he just reached down and hugged me. Again, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary about it. It was a normal Slym hug; strong, comforting, and complete. He smelled of cloves, oil, and himself. I felt completely safe there.

I forgot that over the years.

I still miss him... my father. How can I not? His death is... was on my head. Then again, he'd be the first one to glower at me in uncomfortable silence and shufflingly point out that it had to be done. He would have loved his grand- daughter.

I love my father. He did his best with what he had. He loved me. Kept me safe, as well as he could. And he taught me what it meant to be loved. *That* is what I felt this morning, wrapped in three feet of hair. I felt enveloped. Surrounded. Warm. Safe. Something so alien and strange that I'm still dealing with it, but it was also completely right.

But in those precious moments, right after waking, I found something. With Dom's hair around me and the slight whimpers in my brain that let me know Maddy'll be screaming her head off any minute, I felt wonder. Wonder and bone- deep joy.

I have a life. I have a family. I have peace.

It's almost enough to make me like mornings.