Jessie stared at her new reflection silently. Jean let out a huff.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" the redhead asked finally.
"Pointed ears, fangs, leopard fur, claws, and a tail." Jessie shrugged. "I look like an extra from Cats." The younger woman's fingers slid through the fine coating of fur on her arms. "I don't mind. This is what I'm supposed to look like."
An image flashed from Jessie's unshielded mind to Jean's. Jessie as she looked now with the X-Men. Only the X-Men in the mental picture were nearly twenty years older. Jessie was older too, with bolts of white through the chestnut hair that fell around her shoulders like a lion's mane.
Jessie's laughter echoed in the small room as she spun away from the mirror, her formerly wolf-like grace now a feline's slink. "I should have known! I, of all people, should have known!"
"Jessie," Jean started slowly when the young woman's laughter turned nearly hysterical.
A telekinetic slap brought Jessie up short. She shook her head sharply, sending her loose hair flying around her face. "Sorry. Okay, so I'm a little freaked. But nobody told me! I didn't even tell me if that makes any sense!"
"Not really. I think you should explain this to all of us at once." Jean tried to give the girl a hard look, but the near panicked look made her soften her gaze. "It'll be all right."
"I hope so," Jessie muttered. She slowly followed the redhead out of the room.
"Let's go over that one more time," Scott said coldly.
"Give it a rest, Red-Eye!" Jessie moaned. "I told you the truth. My mental blocks are gone, so there's nothing keeping the Professor and Jeanie out of my head to make sure I'm not lying."
"But time travel? You don't really expect us to believe that, do you?" Storm asked softly.
"I believe her," Rogue said softly. "If that counts for anything."
"You're my mother, it counts to me," Jessie whispered. She stared down at the table.
Across the briefing room, Kyle was staring at her with something that wasn't quite rage in his eyes. Jessie fidgeted through a few more pointed questions from Scott, then finally bolted.
Logan grabbed Kyle's arm as he tried to go after her. Hard hazel eyes locked with bright blue for a long time. "You do anything to hurt her, bub, and I'll make you wish these geeks had left you out in the back of beyond. We clear?"
"Perfectly," Kyle snarled as he yanked away from his fellow Canadian.
Scott shook his head as the blond mutant ran out of the room. He glared at Logan from behind his visor. "Now you start acting like an overprotective father?"
"Shove it, dick-head," Logan growled. He grabbed Rogue's gloved hand and they left the room together with Rogue throwing Scott a dirty look of her own.
Ororo turned to Professor Xavier with raised eyebrows.
"She is telling the truth," he said firmly. "I won't look any farther into her mind. She knows more about our future than I truly wish to see."
"We're still fighting though," Jean whispered. "But there are so many more of us..."
Scott only shook his head. "I don't understand why she didn't tell us in the first place."
"Would you have believed her while the Professor couldn't read her mind?" Ororo lowered her eyes. "I would not have."
"And no one enjoys being dismissed as insane," Xavier commented gently.
Kyle sniffed the air under the largest oak tree in the sparse woods surrounding Xavier's School. "Come down, Jessie. I know you haven't left this tree."
No answer came from the tree.
"Jessie," he rumbled, "come down or I'm coming up."
She dropped to the ground in front of him, landing neatly on all fours, then sat there without looking at him. She still didn't say a word.
Kyle growled low in his throat then reached down to yank her to her feet. "Look at me, damnit!"
Golden cat's eyes came up slowly. The vertical slits were open wide in the dim light filtering through the canopy.
"You're hurting me," she said quietly after a moment of mutual staring. He eased his grip, but didn't let her go. "We have to talk."
"I always loved you," Jessie whispered. "I wanted to hate your wife so much, but she would just look at me like she understood. Now I know why."
"She was you, wasn't she?" Kyle whispered back.
Jessie nodded slowly, letting her face turn back to the ground. "You.. You don't have to marry me, if you don't want. You've got eight years to make up your mind anyway."
He smiled slightly. "I already have. Eight years is going to be one hell of an engagement."
Her head snapped up in shock. "What?"
"You're my mate, Jessie," Kyle explained. "I think I knew that back when you reached out for my hand in the dining room. I sure knew it when you had those strap-on claws poking into my side."
The two young adults stared blankly at the set of leather uniforms on the bed. They looked at each other for a split second before they each grabbed the notes addressed to them.
"The Professor wants me to join the team?" Kyle blinked and read the note again. "A codename?"
"WildChild," his mate muttered absently. "Jean and Ororo made some alterations to my uniform?"
"I'm just guessing here, but you're going to change your codename aren't you?"
A smirk curved her lips slightly. "You bet your X, lover."
"Well?" WildChild let the word draw itself out.
Her smile flashed across her face. "CatsClaw."
"CatsClaw?" WildChild raised his eyebrows.
CatsClaw only smirked again and held up her furry hand. She flexed her fingers and a set of hooked claws extended from their hidden sheaths. "Got a better idea?"
"Not really." He thought for a moment then grinned ferally. "Scott's gonna hate it."
"He'll get over it." CatsClaw chuckled. "Now, I think we have a few things to celebrate."
"Come here, you."
~The End
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