Knocking her knuckles twice against the door she listened for the immediate ‘come in’, but everything was silent on the other end. Confused, she knocked again, much harder this time and again she was not granted entrance.
“Philly, you in there?” She said through the door. No answer came back so she tried the knob only to find it locked. If the door was locked that meant he was in there, she decided.
With a bright flash she transported herself into the small room. Of coarse it was immaculate, no clothes on the floor, nothing out on the dresser or the night-stands, beds perfectly cleaned, cleanest boys’ room that ever existed. When she mentally compared it to the room her and Ricochet shared, well, she felt more than a little pig-like.
“You in here Philly?” She called out again.
“Yeah,” a muffled voice came through the ballroom door and she nodded, relieved that it meant he wasn’t just ignoring her earlier.
Wondering around the room it was hard resisting the urge to mess the place up. Just empty one of the trash cans in the middle of the floor, or maybe ruffle the sheets on one of the beds. But then she noticed one of the beds was already a miss and she leaned against the bathroom door.
“There’s blood on your pillow, are you alright?” Chava couldn’t believe this was happening, just when she thought they had everyone squared away.
“Fine.”
She narrowed her eyes at the door, already considering transporting in there. “What do you mean your fine? There’s blood all over your pillow. Philly, come out here now.”
“Could you please stop yelling?” his voice pleaded.
“I wouldn’t have to yell if I wasn’t talking through a stupid door now get out here, mister.”
The sound of something crashing came from the other side. Crashing or being slammed down she couldn’t really tell. “Damn it! Just a second.”
The door slowly opened and she took a step back to let him out. He had a wad of tissues stuck inside his noise, the tops already tinted red. In his hand was a box full of clean ones.
“Your nose is bleeding,” she stated as he walked past her.
He groaned sitting in one of he desk chairs and let his head fall back over the end of it. “Is it? I haven’t fucking noticed.”
She walked around the front of him and snatched the box out of his hand. He sat up surprised and poised to yell at her but could only get out a “hey!” as she grabbed his hair and pulled his head down probably a little rougher than necessary.
“You lean forward with a bloody nose.” She instructed him crossing her arms over her chest. “You used your powers didn’t you?”
He sat in silence for a second just twisting the tissue around in his nose. Finally he mumbled, “Something like that.”
“Mr. Hank told you no powers for a day or two. Are trying to see if your head will explode?” Then she snorted, laughing to herself. “Oh, Ricochet is SO gonna kill you when I tell her.”
His head dropped a little bit lower and his hand came up to run through his hair, “She already knows.”
She wasn’t sure if she believed him since he was whole in front of her and decided to tell Ricochet when she saw her anyway. Jumping up onto the desk, she pulled a few tissue out of the box and handed them to him. He grunted a thanks and removed the now completely soaked ones.
“Anyway, I came here for a reason.”
“I was hoping,” Philip groaned.
“David woke up a little bit a ago. He wants you to go see him. I’ll tell him you’re still–hm, does ‘indisposed’ sound better than bleeding profusely?”
“No, I’ll go down there. Just give me a second to–“
“Plug your holes?” Chava interrupted him grinning.
Before he could answer her someone knocked loudly at his door. It was even visible vibrating from the force. Whoever it was on the other side they were not satisfied that they were heard and the hard beating continued.
Philip flinched and covered his ears. “Please tell them to fucking stop and go the hell away.”
“Sure,” Chava jumped down of desk and skipped over to the door. Instead of repeating what he said she unlocked it and yelled for them to come in. She grinned when she heard him whimper.
Marie shoved the door out of the way and shot a glance at Chava before squaring up in front of Philip. “Who the hell do you think you are—“
He interrupted her, rubbing the side of his head. “I don’t suppose there was anyway you could yell at me in more of a whisper?”
She snorted, her hands firmly on her hips. “Oh, so you want me to have consideration for your feelings? Isn’t that funny? You don’t seem to give a shit about anyone else’s.”
If it hadn’t been completely against his nature to embarrass himself he would have cried right then and there. Because if the look in her eyes was any indication she was no where close to being done with him or willing to lower her voice.
“I–“
“Shut up,” Marie snapped. “You don’t get to talk. First off, how dare you do that to him in front of the whole school? You had a damn problem, you could have waited till you two were in private. And second, you don’t know shit. You have no clue what we went through back then, losing everyone and—“ She stopped, she had to. Taking a deep breath she pushed the other emotions aside and let anger once again take control. “Logan did not kill Jean. He *saved* her. And it fucking tore him to hell for years afterwards. So maybe you should get the whole damn story before you fucking snap at someone. Oh, yeah, and third, you have to sweep the damn hallway.”
Chava’s head turned from starring shocked at Marie to Philip, “Damn, what did you do?”
“He beat the shit out of Logan for ‘killing his mother’. Logan might not want to beat the crap out of you, but I’m seriously thinking about it.” Marie narrowed her eyes at him.
“Phil, your mom–“
“Yes, I know!” He yelled, throwing the bloody rags down on the desk. “She wasn’t my mom, I get it, okay? I get it. What the hell can I say? Maybe I’m just as fucking crazy as she was!”
“Don’t you dare say that about Jean,” Marie hissed. “Not after what you did to Logan. Jean was not crazy, she was a good woman and would do anything for anyone. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t control Phoenix. Never talk about her like that again.”
Chava watched Philip’s face. He was completely beat. He was rubbing his hands roughly over his eyes and shaking his head, mumbling incoherently.
“Do you want me to tell David you’ll just see him later today?” She quietly asked, feeling sorry for the former shell of her leader.
Slowly he lifted his head up, his cheeks completely red. “No. I’m going down there. I’m just going to get a shower first.” It wasn’t that he needed a shower, but Chava knew him well enough to know that he didn’t want David to see he wasn’t alright. The ‘strong, righteous leader’ image was something Philip coveted. And sure, he’d slipped a few times in front of her and Ricochet, but never in front of David. David always got the full hero show, probably because he was younger than they all were.
“I didn’t think I told him he could leave!” Marie huffed and maybe her way towards the bathroom door.
Chava grabbed her arm to stop her and smiled what she hoped was innocently when Marie’s head jerked around to glare at her.
“Come on, Rogue. He’s already in the shower, let’s just get out of here,” she suggested and started walking toward the door already, hoping Marie would follow.
Luckily she did and they made it a few steps down the hall before Marie blew up again.
“He’s nothing but a selfish bastard!”
“Yes, yes he is.” Chava nodded to appease her. Not just because of that, but also since technically it was mostly true too. “But, you know, he has serious ‘parent issues’.”
Marie chuckled darkly, shaking her head. “Like what? Scott signed if up for little league too early? Jean forced him to take his vitamins every day?”
“No. Well, yeah, but that’s not it.” Chava chewed her bottom lip uncertain if she should say anything. If Philip found out he’d kill her. Multiple times. But Mrs. Rogue back home was always good at keeping secrets if you told her. “Mrs. Summer, you know, *his* mom had Phoenix trouble too.”
Marie’s eyes widened and she nodded, telling her to continue.
“Um, okay, you can’t tell anyone I told you this.” Again Marie nodded. “Okay I was like eight so Phil must have been about ten when Phoenix started, um, popping up. First she only like had control for a second or two. Then, you know, it became longer. And this Phoenix was psychotic, a real bitch.”
“Yeah, that I know.”
“Right,” Chava continued. “Well when she got control she was like violent to the extreme and she almost always took it out on Mr. Summers. The Professor figured she was trying to punish Mrs. Summers, for suppressing her or whatever, you know? Luckily Jean usually managed to get control before he got hurt too bad. Then one day, Philly was suppose to stay with Storm, ‘cuz Mr. Summers was in the Danger Room. But he went to go visit his mom, which none of us were suppose to do by ourselves, you know? Anyway, Phoenix reared her hanis head and just fucking attacked him. Even threw him throw the railing on the stairs. Thank God Mr. Summer’s showed up in time and was able to distract Phoenix till Jean got her under control again. I’d never seen him that scared before. I mean, it was Cyclops, as a little kids we ever thought he could even get scared. Jean wasn’t doing too well either.”
“I can imagine,” Marie was able to choke out through the lump in her throat.
“Yeah, the whole mansion just sort of stopped for a while, you know. Phil was alright and everything, just some bruises and stuff. But the next day Mrs. Summer... She, you know, was scared it would happen again. She hated that she was always hurting Mr. Summer and stuff and then now Phil too. Well, she was scared, you know. The next day she..um.. she committed suicide. You know, stopped Phoenix for good.”
Marie’s heart was having a hard time working from what the girl was telling her. If she knew she was hurting Logan on a constant basis and her child too... She didn’t blame Jean at all, she would have probably done the same thing. It sort of felt that the Jean she knew got it easy. Not easy. No, that was wrong. Easier. Then she realized she had snapped at the kid before getting the complete story. But none of what Chava was telling her made what he did to Logan okay.
“Mr. Summers was never right after that,” Chava continued, no longer concentrating on Marie. “He went into total save the world mode, you know, twenty-four seven. For a while he even tried to run the school for the Professor too, but Professor put Storm in-charge instead and told him to take a break. But Mr. Summers never stops moving, there’s always one more bad guy. A few more people he could save.”
‘Scott,’ Marie sighed in her head. She missed him more than Xavier or Jean, when he died is when she knew they school would never be the same again. That any of them would never be the same again. For the longest time she hated Jean for taking him away, more than she hated her for taking all of Logan’s attention or telling everyone about her crush. Eventually she came to terms with it wasn’t Jean that did it. Jean would have wanted them to have Scott still.
Depression started to rise up in her again but she refused to let it take hold. They all had been depressed too long. She just needed Logan.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Just a little explanation. Never again, promise.
And as some of you might have guessed, yes, I did fail fourth grade English, so forgive all spelling, grammar, typing errors.
And as some of you might have guessed, yes, I did fail fourth grade English, so forgive all spelling, grammar, typing errors.