2013.07.07 - Date of Revelations

As promised Sebastian sent a car for Millie. It was driven by his personal assistant, a woman dressed all in black with black hair. Two black angled lines were tattooed on her face. Wherever she was taking Millie she did so in silence. Any attempt to make conversation would be greeted with a cold stare in the rear view mirror.

When the car finally stopped it was like no where you would expect Sebastian Shaw would be. It was this small hole-in-the-wall place that probably no one had ever heard of. It's only distinguishing marks that would suggest where Millie was being dropped off was a green door and the a red neon sign above it that said "BURGER."

Tess stepped out of the car and opened the door for Millie, she added coldly, "He is meeting you here."

And then added quietly, "Be careful."

Millie is polite as she greets Tessa, though the woman is cool to her. She wears the purple dress with the long slit up one side, all the way to hip almost. The shoes she wears are strappy with very high heels, barely there and crstyal looking. Her blonde hair is pulled up into elegant curls, piled high, and her earrings are long and chandalier-like.

http://heromux.com/File:Millie_Dress1.jpg

Millie already looks...uncomfortable and...out of place. She stands out like a sore thumb already here, her stomach feeling...unsteady. "Umm...should I go home and change first?" She eyes the neon sign warily. She grumbles beneath her breath something about careful being an understatement.

Unknown to Millie, Tessa's statement wasn't about the neighborhood but something else entirely.

Sebastian was waiting just near the door but it would be hard put to recognize him. His long dark hair was neatly worn down revealing that it actually goes a bit past his shoulders. That wasn't all though, he wore a brownish button up shirt that looked more store bought than anything anyone ever saw him in. And if that wasn't weird enough, he was wearing a pair of blue-jeans and work boots. And the work boots were rather well worked in as if they had seen years of use.

This was the real Sebastian Shaw, the one that existed before he became a young billionaire and industrial powerhouse. Shaw approached her carefully, this was something different for him, something he hadn't done in over a decade.

A date, as who he was rather than who he let the world see he was; who he had become.

He chuckled to himself as he realized this was not what Millie was expecting at all, but she did look amazing in that dress, "I guess I should have clarified a bit who the 'real' Sebastian Shaw was. But I do have to say you look breath-taking in that outfit."

Shaw also realized he really should of let Millie know a bit more what he meant by the 'real him.' "I was going to take you here, its the best burger in New York. But now that I'm looking at you, it's not feeling as appropriate is it."

"And...out of place," Millie says. "Out of place for a shooting is one thing," she means a photo shooting, "But on the street, not...the wisest thing." She is also practical...not wanting to be mugged bluntly put. She's wearing thousands of dollars worth of clothes and jewelry after all, and don't ask how long it took to put her hair up. "I'd need a few, and the back seat of your car to fix a few things so I blend in better," Millie confesses. "Can I have a few?"

Shaw wouldn't have brought her here if he didn't know he could protector but she had a good point, she came expecting the rich billionaire and instead got the poor boy from Pennsylvania, "Take all the time you want, my dear."

He looked at Tessa and said, "Tessa make sure know one sees her while she prepares."

For the first time in a long time Shaw felt that perhaps, just perhaps he had made a strong tactical error.

Always tell a girl the dress code if something unexpected! But Millie doesn't say anything, just nods and slips into the back of the car. The windows are darkened most likely, so no real issue. Still, there is only so much she can do. First, she opens the tiny purple bag she carries and unfolds a comb into a longer one. She starts pulling fifty million bobby pins from her hair, and drops them into a nearby cup holder. She brushes her hair out, making it waving instead of having the curls. It goes some of the styling spray out as well. She also removes the earring entirely and drops them into her tiny clutch purse. She pulls out a few tissues from her purse from a compressed tissue bag and pats at her makeup to lighten it, careful not to smuge. She also removes extra jewelry from her wirsts and drops it into her purse, simpifying her outfit to emphasis the gown and insane shoes only.

It takes a good fifteen minutes - mostly cause of the bobby pins - but Millie then climbs out of the car finished.

Rather than the stylish Millie, she appears a little younger now and sort of a pretty girl trying to play 'dress up' via clothes. Still out of place, but not as blanant as it was before, and wearing a softer and more wholesome look this way. To think..jewelry and hair style and make-up can make a world of difference.

"Still a bit out of place," Millie confesses, "But not as much as previously."

Shaw was definitely feeling a bit guilty now, woah, that was a new one for him. He should have realized that Millie would have -assumed- expensive restaurants with expensive foods and expensive wines. He would have assumed the same thing.

In his mind, things were not going very well. Regardless, this was the hand that was now dealt and he was going to make the best of it, "Well, to me you are still very beautiful and I honestly don't care if you fit in or not."

He held his arms out and did a little spin, "What about me, how do I look?"

A twitch of Millie's lips upward, "Why, thank you Sebastian, and you look...adorable, ironically enough. I know many say the clothes make the man, but as long as you don't go insanely distasteful, it is typically the man that makes the clothes. You certainly prove that latter point," about the man making the clothes.

That made Sebastian feel a bit more at ease and he held out his arm to her, so that he may escort her in, "Well then I admit it's not Masa (the most expensive restaurant in NYC) but I assure you that it is a place worth attending. This is the first place I ever ate at when I first came to Metropolis. I've never found a burger that tasted even remotely as good."

It was probably not the date she was expecting, but he was hoping to make it memorable.

Millie moves to accept Sebastian's arm. "Well, a good burger is worth braving any place," she says with a soft smile. "And part of it is the importance of the memories as well. Thank you for sharing that with me." It's Millie though, she's gentle about the shock of the 'surprise'. It's just part of her nature. Sebastian knows she has a temper, and apparently this wasn't something deeming its appearance, so he hasn't done anything really terrible at all. "May I ask how old you were then?"

Sebastian had to actually think for a second and muttered aloud slightly, "almost fourty years ago...."

With a bit more confidence he said, "I was 26. I had just opened Shaw Industries and was in town trying to woo investors."

He opened the door to the place and while it was certainly not a five star restaurant it did look better than it looked on the outside. Though the chef behind the counter didn't look the cleanest in the world, "I was staying at a very cheap hotel, had no idea where anything was. So I was just wandering for somewhere to eat and happened here."

Millie doesn't really blink at that, it's a mom's and pop's shop kinda place, hole in the wall that isn't bad, just not stylish. She knows how they are, growing up in a small town and all. Still, "Ages for you," a soft teasing. "You must have been nervous back then, when it was all just beginning." A type of sentence to encouarge Sebastian to talk more about it. She lets Sebastian pick a place to sit, but obviously if there is a table here, she would perfer that due to her dress.

Moving to a table towards the middle of the diner he held out a chair for her, "Oddly enough, no. I suppose others would be. But I had fought for everything I had gotten so far and had always one. To me it was no different"

There was always such confidence in his voice, but this was more, it was almost a nostalgic feeling to remember what it was like for him back then, when he was in a $50 suit trying convince millionaires to fund construction projects in Central and South America.

Millie moves to take a seat, lifting her hair up from one shoulder to brush it behind her back. "Don't tell me you were the aggressive bully type?" There is teasing in Millie's tone. She knows Sebastian can be exactly that, and holds no judgment toward it. Though she mmms softly, picking up a menu to check out some of the appetizers. Hey, if she's going to splurge on her constant diet, she may as well do it right. "I would be the nervous type," she confesses. "Always was. Even when I was all ready and juiced up with competitiveness, I was still the nervous type. Failure was...never acceptable to me, so whenever I risked suffering it, it always gave me knots." A smile at that, "Still like that. Never stopped me from trying though, and still doesn't."

Sebastian chuckled as he sat down himself, he didn't look at the menu though, he came here once every ten years; he knew what he would order. Though he was breaking his rule today as it was still three years before he was supposed to do that, "No not like that, quite the opposite actually. I was bullied near constantly growing up, and through college... and starting my business. It was endless fortitude that made me the success that I am today."

He did add however, "Now you being nervous, that's something I can't imagine... well I can, but not in a competition or looking for a gig."

Millie mmms, "They have cheese sticks," before setting the menu back down. "Sinful things," a soft smile at that. "So you were bullied? I just find that so difficult to believe, but then again, people change over time." She mmms, "I can certainly see you have the type to have fortitude however. It's a very admirable trait." And one she really likes.

"Order whatever you want, my love. It's all on me," Sebastian said with a smile, of course that could be assumed but after that revelation he could use a bit of power back.

"As for the bullying. You have to understand, where I grew I had to big disadvantages. One: we had no money. Two: I was the son of Jacob Shaw. Even getting my full-time job working third shift at the Steel Mills was a challenge. My father was an outcast, showed up one day out of no where in the middle of WW2, the community assumed he was a military deserter. And in a way, they were right."

It was almost like it was timed when the waitress came over, dressed in one of those old school yellow waitress outfits you swear only exist in movies and television wanting to take their order.

Shaw said, "Hello hun, I'll have the burger with everything, ranch dressing for the fries and a Michelob."

The waitress took down his order and looked at Millie expectantly.

A soft blush on Millie's cheeks at the 'my love' comment, but no response to it otherwise. "An order of cheese sticks, and a cheese burger. Water and coffee to drink please, decaf coffee if you have it." She then mmmms softly.

Once the waitress leaves, she looks over at Shaw, "Often the draw back to a small town, the sins of the father, become wrongly the sins of the son, and so on." Millie looks at Shaw curiously, "What draw you to business though of all things? So much of your life is private Sebastian, and honestly...I rather you tell me rather than find out from the internet."

"Ah! So you've 'googled' me have you?" Sebastian said with a soft chuckle, "Business was... our dream. Mine and my father's. He wanted me to become more than what we were. I didn't find this out until a decade later but the Shaw family are quite famous both in the United Kingdoms and the Americas. In fact, one of my descendents help fight against the Yankees in the Revolutionary War and my grandfather was a Brigadier General in the British Army, died before I was born though."

Shaw realized he was rambling a bit and said, "My father wanted me to achieve and so I did. As soon as I was sixteen I started working full-time, but didn't let my academics falter. I ended up Valedictorian with a full scholarship."

Shaw laughed a bit at the memory for a moment, "I was working steel when the mail came in, we uh, didn't live somewhere that you could have mail delivered. As soon as my shift was over I rushed to the hospital to see my father. But--"

He looked down as he rested his chin against his hands, "He had already passed. But I still told him... he knew his son would not be working steel for a living. That I know."

Millie listens attentively, curiously. "I'm sure he would be proud Sebastian. I know there are...other things," leaving it vague for now, "But there are still wonderful things you do, and you have risen far from where you were before under your own power and steam. That sort of motivation and dicipline is certainly to be respected. And, who says he doesn't know? Everything about the after life is still just based on faith and theory, so who says he doesn't know you have grown?"

"The funny thing was, I was in a bar that night, the night my father passed," Sebastian said, the waitress had just dropped off their drinks. Shaw picked up his beer and said, "I was having one of these and bragging to the barkeep about how I was going to Stevens Institute. Turned out some of my upcoming fellow students didn't like that idea. So they took to me with pool cues."

Taking a drink of his beer he said, "That's when I knew how different from everyone I was."

A tightness appears to Millie's expression...she doesn't like the thought of you being hurt, even all those years ago. But she nods, "That...was wrong, to try and hurt you like that." She reaches out to gently touch her fingertips to the back of your hand that is still on the table, likely about your beer. There are many things she could say right now, but she chooses, silent support as the best choice. Her own coffee and water untouched for now.

"It didn't hurt," he admitted with a smile, "Because that is when it happened. When I realized what I was and who I was," He set down his beer and took her hand and said, "That's the first day my own abilities manifested themselves. Those frat boys got more than what they bargained for that day."

He took her hand and kissed the back of it, "But I appreciate the concern, my love."

"I'll always be concerned Sebastian. Even if they didn't manage to hurt you physically, even if you paid them back for what they did, it was still cruel of them to do to you, and cruelity leaves its mark." Millie gives your hand a gentle squeeze.

"Cruelty... was my motivation, dear Millie," Shaw said with a smile, now taking her hand with his other, "I was to be better than them all. I lived my college life, monastic asceticism. No parties, no drinking, no drugs. Those people I attended class with, they all had their pops and mammies paying for everything. I was working as a janitor at the college and taking double courses."

With a drink of the beer he was just bragging about never drinking in college he added, "And thus I became the wunderkind."

"Wunderkind?" Millie does finally pick up just one pack of cream and mix it in her coffee, stiring it quietly before she sets the spoon aside to lift it for a sip. Her othe rhand still rests within yours. She smiles at that, "Steel worker I can picture, but not so much janitor."

Shaw laughed, he had to admit to himself... that part was always weird, "All the good internships were taken by the rich and influential. Well the paid ones anyways, I was in three internships as well. I needed to be able to feed myself the scholarship only covered classes and the dorm room."

Realizing he was still holding your hand he released it. He then picked up and finished his beer. Sebastian said, "I did whatever it took to get what I wanted. I graduated with honors, in the top one percent of my class. So with a masters in Engineering, Business and Computer, it was like a feeding frenzy when I graduated. Everyone wanted me. That's why I decided I could go my own way."

"That...is a lot of degrees Sebastian. I'm a hard worker, but I think I would have died under that type of stress," making a bit of a face. Millie skipped by high school with her grades, but she worked hours upon hours at Tennis in the Academy. The teachers likely still remember her hard work and how she used to spend hours upon hours everyday except for one for training.

The food was now delivered all placed in front of their respective orderers as Sebastian requested another beer. Turning back to Millie, "You worked on your body constantly, I worked on my mind constantly."

The waitress came back with beer and he took a sip, "Don't ever think that you did less than me, we just had different focuses."

With a bite into the burger he looked at the ceiling and said, "I've missed this, ten years is too long," the hamburger was pure ecstasy to him. A burger he has only once a decade for nearly forty years. As he reacted to the burger it was easier to see the signed picture on the wall, one of Sebastian Shaw looking in his thirty. Older than now, but obviously him.

Millie reaches for a cheese stick first, having a napkin nearby and nibbling on it carefully. A soft mmmm comes from her. She then starts to laugh softly. "They must be good to gain such a reaction from you." She finishes the cheese stick before lifting the burger, "You know the owners at all?" She takes a bite of her own burger then, mmming softly, "Juicy, not at all dry." She licks her lower lip, then lifts a napkin to catch some of the juices, chuckling a bit.

Sebastian says, "About every fifteen years they need help. And at that point they receive one-hundred thousand dollars from a... source."

"So you've found out alot about me, I wish to know... what can I know about Millicent Millie that I can't find on the internet."

Dipping a fry into his ranch on the side he added, "Besides the broken nose thing. Everyone knows that."

A soft laugh at that. "Well, don't ask me to model for lingerie and cause me to forfeit a game, and you may be safe." Course, there are Sebastian's powers, but Millie is just teasing. "I'm not really sure what to say to be honest. My parents and I aren't close, but I see them occansionally and send them cards. Most my time is spent working as a model, exercise such as playing tennis, or community service and now the Gifted Foundation. I try to take one day off a week for me, though often 'me time' usually ends up reading to children, or doing something community service. I...live alone, and enjoy reading or just sweating it off while listening to music. I like people though on a good day, just being around them even if I am not directly interacting with them." Millie mmms softly, "I suppose I'm contradicting. I'm a loner, and yet I love people."

Sebastian couldn't help but laugh about that, "My dear Millie, you're so much more interesting to me than you give yourself credit for."

He was about to eat more of his burger but then stopped because of all this, "You adore mutants, you are a human. You are a loner, you love people. You hate every single thing I seem to stand for."

And with that Shaw pushed his plate away, one bite and one fry and he was done, because of Millie, "Yet, but here we are. And you are loving me as much as I am loving you."

A soft blush on Millie's cheeks at that. "What's the big deal about mutants anyway? Sure, some how powers that can test national security, but people can be spies, learn hacking, or countless other skills. People can buy guns with a good sniper scope, and kill people from far away. There are countless ways around the need for 'super powers' to test order and national security. Just because someone can, doesn't mean they /will/."

"Just because someone is born a little different, does make them a good or bad person Sebastian. You are who you strive to be. And that's what I stand for. Taking responsibility for your actions, and...doing good for the world." She picks up a cheese stick to nibble on. "It's...important to me. I want a world I can be proud to live in, that I can feel safe in. And being at work, kil...hurting each other, is not going to obtain that world."

"And what if I could tell you, my love. What if I could tell you I can give you the world you dream for," Sebastian says harshly, this is not the Sebastian she was promised, "What if I can give you that world you wanted and all it cost was five billion people.."

He knew that this was a bad deal but he wanted to know what Millie thought, "It would cost nearly five billion humans and ten-thousand mutants. That is the point where we wouldn't care, And you and I could be their leaders."

He was revealing the real Sebastian Shaw at this moment. He looked at her coldly, "And what if I told you that the US government had already decided to do this. That ever... single... mutant that made you cry, that every... single... one... died for a good cause. And that cause was not Magneto's. And was not Charles's."

Shaw finished his second beer and added, "What if I told you, that I knew the solution to all this pointless conflict?"

A wince at those words. "Then it is not a world I want Sebastian. Five billion people....a world of peace found on a sea of blood..., that isn't a dream Sebastian, it's a...nightmare, a...horriable nightmare." And fear in her eyes. "Sebastian...a world like that...would be built on fear and terror, not hope and love. It...would be an empty world, a world of self-hatred."

A wince at those words. "Then it is not a world I want Sebastian. Five billion people....a world of peace found on a sea of blood..., that isn't a dream Sebastian, it's a...nightmare, a...horriable nightmare." And fear in her eyes. "Sebastian...a world like that...would be built on fear and terror, not hope and love. It...would be an empty world, a world of self-hatred. A world, where human life, mutant or otherwise, has no meaning. For me who considers human life precious...," and she shakes her head.

And at that Shaw backed off and became Sebastian again, "That's why you have the device I gave you. And that is why... Erik... of all people now controls Genosha."

He looks at her now with love in his heart, "And that is why you make me feel like this."

He gestures to his clothing, "You, my love, reminded why I do everything in my power to make sure that mutants and humans both inherit the Earth."

"Love... is... "

He jumps away from that statement and says, "Peace, I would adore peace... If it could happened...."

He looked at Millie and everything fade away, every single problem he saw in the world. All because this woman could recognize the problem and rejected the solution.

All because of this woman. Maybe Emma was right, maybe it was nostalgia. Maybe Tessa was right, it was just a fling.

Instead he stated, "I am responsible for the destruction of the Mutant Action Center."

The bit of cheese stick that was left over, being fidgeted with really by Millie actually drops from numbed fingers. "What?" Millie actually pales, visible. "That's...not funny Sebastian." She doesn't want to hear it, to...acknowledge it. The boy that The Gifted Foundation was built around and for, died in that destruction. And the tears well up, instinctively. Never has there ever been a report of Millie crying in public. Not when she was wrongly accused of murder, not when the police and medics helped her and the other models after they escaped from a burning build and Millie's arm was broken, not even when she had been shot at and almost assassinated. Not even when her name was cleared, did she cry. Not even when she told Emma what had happened to that young man, to that young teenage boy, did a single tear fall.

And yet...tears start to fall down her cheeks now, and her body jerks upward, "Ex...excuse me a mo...ment." And Millie goes to flee...to the bathroom, to outside...anywhere but here, where she can be seen.

Sebastian stood up, he was suddenly up and towards her bathroom, "Millie, I will not leave until we are done."

He sat down by the bathroom, "I did not order them to attack Erik. Once they are are released..."

He literally sat by the bathroom she was in and said, "Erik.... is Magneto. He wanted it. We have had years of fighting for this."

He smiled to noone and asked, "Please open the door, and don't judge me by who I am, but who you make me become."

There is no open door, "Stop...just...go away for...a while." Millie is not the type to break down in front of people...not the type to make a scene. Erik...Mangeto...it's too much information, too much for her to process...the man she trusted, she helped /murder/ the boy she wanted to protect. None of it makes sense, not the attack on the Mutant Action Center or why Erik would want it, or why Shaw would permit it, or why the Sentinels were even ordered to kill...which is wrong legally on all levels. None of it makes sense, and little is known publicly about it. It really is too much for Millie.

As inside the bathroom, the water in the sink is turned on to run, and even though the floor is far from clean, Millie has curled up upon it in a corner, holding her legs tightly as she cries into the skirts of the dress Sebastian bought for her. She has to gasp for breath, her throat feels so tight, and her stomach wants to throw up what little she did manage to eat.

Sebastian new better than to try to get her to come out after that. He had dropped a huge bombshell on her and it was one that was hard to accept. He hadn't even gotten to what specifically his role was, because it wasn't at extreme as he had suggested.

He wasn't sure why he was being so honest. Maybe it was because he had promised to be the real him tonight. Maybe he just wanted to finally tell someone! Even Emma didn't know about the Project Wideawake yet.

He went back to the table and rested his head on his hands, he knew what he had to say next, but he just had to wait until she was ready to hear it.

new = knew

It is about fifteen minutes later. Very noticable by the staff here, but not as long as it would likely take others after such a bombshell. It took some work cleaning up her make-up, which gives her and even fresher and younger face, less sophisicated as make-up is removed. Her eyes are still reddish though, as is her nose a bit. But damn, does Millie get her act together, had brushed off her dress, and come out with shoulders straight, and head held high as they say, a real trooper. Only those that look close will see the fact she had been crying.

Millie sits down at the table when you are there, her throat at the base revealing her fastly beating heart. She is silent for a few as she fidgets with a napkin before asking, "Why are the Sentinels programmed to kill? Who passed that?" Her tone is careful, quiet, and tightly controlled.

"The original programming was that they would kill only in self-defense. They are supposed to capture and intern," Shaw admits honestly, his models were different that the Trask's first attempts. He also realized he was violating his non-disclosure agreement with Project: Wideawake but he didn't care, "A Brigadier General named John Ogilvie had that programming overwritten after the models were given to him. I had no control over that."

And Sebastian has to add, "And I did not order the attack, after they leave my facilities the Project heads have full control over what they do and do not do."

There is still pain in Millie's eyes, deep pain. "But...that's insanely illegal, to order them to kill like that. John Ogilvie...is a /monster/. Someone that needs stopped. And...Magneto is an...extremist...he can use that to encourage war rather than peace. Why ever would you agree to accept such a contract Sebastian? Let alone let it be abused, betraying the trust of the people of the United States and costing innocent people their lives?" Millie's trying to understand, but it's...insanely difficult for her, and the slight quiver to her voice reveals that.

"Why would I accept a contract like that? Because anyone who was not me would have made them lethal from the start; wouldn't have built blind spots in the programming," he said calmly and then remembered something he gave Millie once, "Would not have used the research into X-Gene detection to create a device that masks it. What I have done I did to preserve my race. Working from the inside in order to ensure that there was always a way out before there was total war."

He sighed heavily, he was now starting to regret his truthfulness from earlier. But, Millie needed to know... she needed to know just how hard the world really was on the people. How a poor boy from Pennsylvania could grow so hardened.

"All I've done has been for a good cause. Because I was a good man... once."

A shake of her head, "Sebastian," her tone saddened. "If you believe that, then you can't just 'try', you must 'do'. That means not only building blind spots, but also looking for alternatives such as exposing corruption and political scandal. There is very little to 'try', and a lot more to 'do'," Millie explains softly.

With a very sad smile Sebastian admitted, "If that was the way the world worked, I would gladly do it. Maybe, I've been in the system too long. Perhaps, I can no longer see the forest from the trees. But the truth, Millie, is that I could go on television tomorrow and reveal every dirty secret I know, and it would be more interesting to the public what Kim Kardashian named her newborn. And this is not a new thing."

Shaw shook his head, "It's always been this way, it will always be this way. The best I can do is mitigate the damage. To make it so that I can save lives in the end. Erik has always been more right than Charles on one thing, war is coming. I just am trying to make sure it ends a stalemate. That one day, in the future, humanity as a whole will realize the stupidity of their actions and move on from them."

"I'm not sure who Charles is, but I'll say this Sebastian. If you say, that's all I can do, I'm helpless, I'm powerless...then that is all you will ever become. I was there, but I refused to accept that as an answer, so I created The Gifted Foundation. That is my reaction to being shown how powerless and helpless I am. Your reaction is to stand by when you have information on active acts of murder done by a military official in a government program. That is a significate difference between us, one refusing to accept their place in life, and one resigned to it."

Millie then moves to stand, "I'd like to go home," she says quietly.

Shaw stood up and looked at Millie, "That's your choice."

As they walked out Sebastian decided to say, "It's not the only thing you can do. People like you, you make change... You change the way the game is played, a wild card thrown in the mix."

Now sad on all of this, "Sometimes people like me and Erik... we forget that is always the 'little people' who change the world. Martin Luther and his Nintey-Five Theses. Frederick Douglass helped Harriet Tubman."

He sighed as this was not the way of the Hellfire Club but he had to admit, "Sometimes, people like you... you change the world it such a way that the elite have to react rather than control."

Millie pauses outside with you, taking a deep breath before he looks at you, "Then react Sebastian. I'm not trying to change you, but I can see the man you /could/ be if you made a simple choice. Yes, there is risk, but the pride you can feel in your heart, the satisifaction in your very soul, does it not make such risk worth it?" Her voice quivers slightly.

Sebastian stopped walking even as Tessa pulled up with their car, "Millie... you confound me so."

He stood there dressed in clothing he wouldn't wear even on a dare, his hair worn down because he -trusted- her, something he never did.

Standing a few steps behind Millie he said, "Tomorrow, I am going on Neil O'Malley's show on Lex News. There, I will come out for mutants and metahumans. I will say that they are just as human as you or I. And I will be honest... to a degree. I won't admit my own mutant nature but I am ready to let the world see my change of heart."

He rushed to Millie and said, "I wanted you to see the good in me tonight and instead it has been a verbal diarrhea of truth. I'm sorry for that."

Millie's eyes blink rapidly as she fights back more tears, "It...isn't like me to show such emotion in public. I...losing that young man...it almost broke me Sebastian. But...I picked myself up, I continued forward with The Gifted Foundation." She looks back up at you again, "I don't hate you Sebastian, I...could never do that," she ends a bit breathlessly. "I just...I do /want/ you to be happy." Her eyes search yours then, "You believe that, don't you?"

Sebastian Shaw walked forward until he was right next to her, "I never wanted to see you cry. I'm sorry... I was too honest."

In the car, Tessa smiled as Shaw was finally reaching something that he never would.

Sebastian took Millie's hand softly and gently, "I want you to be happy too. I... want... you to be happy with me, but that can never happen, can it?"

Millie's expression is a little guarded, and a little hopeful both. "I...don't know." But slowly at first, there is a gentle squeeze that comes from Millie's hand to yours. "We...will have to see," her voice a little breathless sounding. "There is a lot to consider, and the affect it would have on both our lives." Especially if Shaw Industries continues to make Sentinels and permits them to be overridden to kill on sight, and does nothing. "I want...," and Millie shakes her head gently. "I don't know what I want Sebastian. Part of me...utterly jealous at what Lady Sif finally obtained. A...family. But I never really saw that as the path I would walk. So, I don't know. Life has a habit of throwing up roadblocks and other hiccups along the way, and sometimes detours may need to be taken."

And at that, Sebastian just opened the door to the car with Tessa, a woman he had subjugated for his own reasons. This -date- was going to go so different in his mind so he just said to Millie...

"What I want, will never be what I have. Tomorrow I will reveal my true thoughts on mutants and metahumans. Tonight..."

He paused still opening the door for her, "Tonight I showed you my vulnerable side and I want you to know that only -you- could get me to reveal those things."

To say that Shaw was disappointed would be an understatement. He, for once, thought he could be understood. But it appeared that even Millie couldn't understand him.

Tessa however had something to say after Millie entered the car.

Still, Millie doesn't depart quite that easily. As the door opens, she moves to hug Shaw, pressing close against him and hugging him tightly as if her life depended on it. "Sebastian...," her voice so quiet near his ear. She stays there for a few moments if permitted, before she will finally pull away. "Whatever you decide for tomorrow...," her eyes search your own, "Come speak with me, my place. Just the two of us," no witnesses, no risk of ease droppers either. "I want to know what you want from life." She then raises a finger to cross her heart, "I promise to just listen." Her tone is gently pleading as she asks this of Sebastian.

Sebastian smiled at Millie, "I'll tell all, you won't like it all, but I will tell it."

He holds the door open for her still and says, "And before I see you I will go on TV and come out as pro-mutant. I will explain my ignorance."

Shaw lowers his head, "I'm sorry if I made you feel insignificant because... Millie you are never insignificant... you are much more that you ever think yourself as."

Millie shakes her head, "No..I...Sebastian, it was an example, not that you....," and she looks conflicted, almost..guilty. "Whatever you do, I want you to do it for yourself Sebastian. I want you do to it, because of the man you can be. Not to change who you are, but to become more of the man within you." She then reaches up to touch Shaw's right cheek, caressing it gently. But before she says anything more, Millie turns away and slips into the vechile.

And Shaw was feeling sincere for the first time in a long time.

However Tessa, the driver looks at Millie in the rear view mirror. Her eyes meeting Millie's. Tessa suddenly says, "He's not been this interested in five years. Do you feel for him? Because, not feeling for him will destroy him more than he already is."

Millie swallows hard at Tessa's words. "I already fell for him hard, but I can be a practical woman when I need to be. Still...I'm not so sure I can save myself if it comes to that," her voice very quiet at that. "I think that...is more terrifying than anything else, and makes Sebastian the most dangerous man I have ever met." She is looking out of the darkened window at that point, somewhat lost to her own internal thoughts.