As Tina crawled about in Justin's head, he did so in hers, not used to the sensation of feeling others' thoughts in his head. He studied the memories of her time with Namor (which was a different take on the man he'd known when seen through a child), and her memories of her mother, all of which seemed to be laced with anger and confusion, even the childhood ones.
He saw Kassia and Tina's silent, but minor, resentment that he little sister was more loved than her. He watched as Tina grew up feeling alone and unloved...until Sebastian Shaw came along.
And then there were things that were so unspeakable that Justin's distress was palpable, even to Christina. The treatment and cruelties she'd endured at his hands caused Justin's hands to curl into fists, ready to kill the man at first opportunity. Her memories of Benedict Kine, whom Justin had never heard of, enraged him further, and it took all that the young Rhodes had not reach out and choke the son of a bitch where he stood, to remind himself that what he was seeing and feeling wasn't real.
He saw the warmth of her caring for Cassidy and learned of the horrors the boy had endured, as well as Tina's fears of what lay ahead now that she was changing so much. And at the head of all these, he saw Tina's greatest fear:
Her belief that all of this would make him leave her, and never want to see her again. He saw how she played it through her mind thousands of times a day, even during near-death situations, and every single replay showed him getting angry, shoving her away, turning his back on her, calling her unspeakably filthy names or worse...asking her to do the things that Kine and Shaw had forced her into, and her compliance even as it broke her soul into a thousand diamond slivers.
Somehow, her belief that his love was only based on her sexual prowess cut him deeper than knowing she risked her life without telling him.
He look at her now, as she backs away, and pulls her back to him, clutching onto her for dear life as her mind releases his.
"Is that...all you got? Gonna have to try harder to get rid of me." he whispers, his voice rough with emotion.
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