Marie spends the next few days successfully avoiding everyone in the mansion, including Logan.
Well, especially Logan.
As promised, she meets up with the Professor, steeling herself for a hardcore mind-breaking mental workout. Instead they talk. Oh sure, he does his little telepathic thing and checks her barriers. She can feel him in there, essentially reinforcing what was already constructed. While she appreciates that, it conflicts with what he had mentioned before about blocking Carol off. Xavier explains that he still believes Marie needs to explore the possibilities behind Carol’s hiding, but she also needs the freedom of having control over herself in order to prevent a total Carol takeover. Together, they’ll work on one thing before moving on to another trouble area. It will be a balancing act. A lengthy one. And to start off he wants to talk. Not just information about her mutation and the tricks she’s developed over the years to help deal with the mental side effects. No, he wants personal information too. Her childhood, likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, aspirations. At first she wants to stonewall the Professor. Keep him out and prevent him from learning valuable information about her, from developing a relationship with her. That need lessens as he keeps asking questions about the future because she honestly doesn’t have answers to give him. She’s never been a planner, never really had the opportunity to fully explore anything. So there isn’t much to tell him after all.
She’s actually feeling more mentally secure after the Professor patches up the barriers when Jubilee seeks her out, once again barging into her room and flopping herself down on the nearest available surface. She does most of the talking. Half apologizing/half excusing the boys’ behavior in the hallway. Calling them both asses, saying Bobby’s usually not like that, Johnny’s always been a bit of a shit, she doesn’t know what crawled up Kitty’s ass and died, and man, Mr. Summers needs to stop riding her ass about calculus because, hello, hasn’t the guy ever heard of dyscalculia? . Even though she didn’t technically finish high school with Flamer, Icehole, and crew, it sure sounds like she graduated from the Wolverine School of Cussing Like a Sailor with flying colors.
“I mean, I’ve got training this summer! Like, I already took calculus and didn’t do so hot, but what part of ‘learning disability’ doesn’t Mr. Summers understand? I mean, come on! When will I need that while kicking ass anyway? When was the last time you used an equation in a fight?” Jubilee stops her tirade and looks at Marie, actually expecting a response this time.
“I don’t fight.”
Jubes rolls on her back and flops down again, head hanging off the bed while she sniggers. “Yeah, right. You’re Brotherhood. All you guys do is fight.”
“Yeah, they do fight a lot, but I was never a part of it.”
Jubilee is up again, adopting the same pose from the first day she visited Marie. “What do you mean by that?”
Marie has an inkling, somewhere in her mind that this is all a very elaborate ploy by the X-Men. Get a junior, not-quite-member to befriend her a little, chat about her own problems, draw Marie in, and then ask probing questions instead of a normal interrogation. Sure that could be an unhealthy dose of paranoia talking, but she doesn’t have any other explanation as to why Jubilee would risk the derision from her friends to come speak with her.
“I didn’t…get involved with Brotherhood stuff. I didn’t go fighting with them, I never fought the X-Men or anything like that.”
“So you stayed behind, like, planning stuff?”
Marie shakes her head, already tired of this conversation. She feels like she’s been on the defensive a little too much lately. “No, I didn’t plan anything. I didn’t take part in any of the messes Magneto and all of them got into.”
Jubilee looks like she’s actually considering Marie’s words, as if they’re really having a genuine discussion. In reality, Marie assumes that Jubes already had the questions planned out ahead of time instead of waiting for Marie’s responses to steer things.
“But didn’t you want to? Like do things with them? I mean you lived with them for a while and word on the street is that Mystique was pretty damn fond of you.”
“Yeah, I lived with them for a while, they took me in off the streets. And I thought Mystique was fond of me too, until she forced me to murder someone.” That comes out with a little more heat and bitterness than Marie had anticipated.
Deciding not to explore the fractured relationship between foster mother and daughter, Jubilee continues on in a different vein. “Then what did you do.”
Marie shrugs and blows out a breath. “I…just…lived there. I dunno. Tried school, that didn’t work. Just…hung out. Stayed to myself mostly.” And that was really all she did back then; just passed the time. For the first time she realizes how similar it was to living on the street. Nothing but waiting, surviving, just getting by to the next day. It was the same with the Brotherhood, but she was just a lot more comfortable with the regular showers and having an actual bed. It’s pretty fucking depressing thinking about how she had lived the last couple of years of her life.
“Didn’t they like, make you do things? I can’t see Mags and his merry band of mutants just taking you in out of the kindness of their evil hearts.”
Another shrug. “I just don’t know. I never wanted to be involved and Mystique went out of her way to make sure I wasn’t, so –“
“Why?”
“You’re gonna have to tell the X-Men that I don’t have an answer for that either.” Jubilee’s about to open her mouth, probably to refute that she’s reporting this information back to anyone, but Marie is tired of the song and dance. This is something she’s spent too much time thinking about and still, she has no discernible answer. “I don’t know. I don’t know why they took me in. I don’t know why Mystique went out of her way to keep me out of everything. I don’t know why she made me kill Carol. I. Just. Don’t. Know.”
Jubilee’s actually silent for a while after that, which seems like a first for the girl. Marie turns away from her, watching the night settle over the mansion grounds from her perch on the window seat.
“I’m not a rat.”
Marie stays silent. There’s really nothing more she can say to that.
“I’m not. No one told me to come up here and talk to you.” She can hear the irritation starting to flood Jubilee’s voice and in the reflection of the window, sees her fully sit up on the bed. So Marie just nods, not really committed to it.
“Hey! I mean it! I’m not taking orders!”
Marie turns to her at that. “Just like I wasn’t involved with what the Brotherhood was doing?”
Stalemate.
The yellow-covered girl opens and closes her mouth quite a bit after that.
Yeah, talk about an impasse.
She seems to find some tentative footing after a few minutes.
“So…we can’t trust each other to tell the truth, then.” It isn’t quite a question, not quite a statement.
Feeling like she’s on a roll with the nonverbal communication, Marie keeps up the shrugging. “I guess not.”
Jubes flops back on the bed, spread-eagle. They stay like that for a while, Marie once again facing the window, both unmoving, silent.
“Do you know why I hated Carol so much?” Jubilee doesn’t bother raising her head, so Marie has to verbally answer in the negative rather than just shaking her head.
“She’s like, still in your head right?”
“Yeah, but she’s not like the others. I don’t have an all access pass to her memories.”
She expects Jubes to start in with another round of questions, asking more “whys” about her mutation.
“Then you don’t know what she was up to.” Another half question/half statement, but this catches Marie by surprise. Now that Jubilee is sitting up, Marie can just shake her head.
“She tried screwing over some people here. I’m pretty sure she was trying to break up the team.”
Now it’s Marie’s turn for questions. “The X-Men?”
“Yup.”
“Why? She was one of them.”
“Dunno. Didn’t quite figure that out before you offed her.” Okay, this isn’t going to be tactful either.
“What did she do? What are you basing all this on?”
“So she was banging the Wolvster, right?” Jubilee looks at Marie for confirmation and yes, that is something that she had clearly picked up from Carol.
“They were dating?”
Jubilee nearly keels over, she’s laughing so hard. “Holy shit, no! Logan? As somebody’s boyfriend? Like exclusively? Oh grasshopper, you have so much to learn.” She’s wiping tears from her eyes at that point, carefully avoiding her thick, outrageous makeup.
“Well what then? They were sleeping together, I know that. What’s the point?”
“Okay, okay, keep your gloves on –“ That earns her a glare. “- they were gettin’ it on, pretty regularly, but nothing serious. Definitely no commitment or promises or anything.”
“And that pissed you off? You were…jealous?” Marie’s been wondering about the exact relationship between Logan and Jubilee for a few days now after watching them outside from her window perch or stealing glimpses from hidden spots in the mansion.
“Oh…oh man, I really hope you’re not implying what I think you’re implying.” Marie gives her one of those, “well if the shoe fits” looks and all humor flees from Jubilee’s face.
“Oh, ew! Are you serious? That’s like…that’s like…just…ew! Wolvie’s practically family!”
“Well how am I supposed to know? Ya’ll seem close.”
“Oh man, oh man. I’m gonna vomit. Or maybe I need to rinse my brain with bleach. Or –“
“Okay, fine! Just get on with it! So she was sleeping with Logan, what’s the big problem?”
After taking a deep breath Jubes replies, “She was using him, playing him. Yeah he wasn’t looking to get attached so he didn’t expect commitment from her, but she was specifically manipulating him.”
Marie doesn’t know how to respond to that, there are too many questions springing up from all of this unsolicited information so she just motions for Jubilee to explain.
“Carol knew that Wolvie had a thing for Dr. Grey –“
“Jean? The redhead?”
“With the pinched face and general air of snobbery and bitchitude? Yeah, one and the same.”
Okay, so Marie knows how Jubes feels about the doctor, too.
“Well, Logan’s been chasing after Jean forever. Long before I got here, probably when he first showed.”
“But isn’t she with Scott? Er…uh…Mr. Summers? I got the impression that they were together.”
“Oh yeah, totally. They’ve been together forever. Their involvement predates Logan getting involved with the X-Men. But that didn’t stop the Wolvster from flirting with Jean. I think part of it is to get under Mr. Summers’ skin, but a big part is that he’s always had a thing for Jean.”
Days of Our Mutant Lives. Jubes wasn’t kidding earlier when she said that there was a lot of drama on the main team. And this isn’t even the whole story. “So where does Carol come in to all of this?”
“Oh! Right. Well, Carol had her eye on Mr. Summers.”
Marie groans. Yup, drama. “So Jean and Scott are together…” Jubes nods. “And Logan likes Jean…” Another nod. “And Carol liked Scott…” More nodding. “And Carol and Logan were sleeping together, but weren’t in a relationship.” Jubilee looks at Marie like she’s just earned herself a sticker for passing a test.
Again, there are still too many loose ends. “So part of Logan chasing Jean was to get under Scott’s skin?”
“Yup.”
“He didn’t know? Wait, wouldn’t Jean know? She’s a telepath, right?”
“Hmm, dunno about the first. I mean, maybe on some level he knew that Wolvie eggs him on, but he’s still a guy, a guy with a pretty – but snobby – fiancée who is being tempted by this giant hunk of man who doesn’t hear “no” from a woman often…if ever. And I’m pretty sure Jean knew. Like you said, she’s a telepath. Also, it was pretty flippin’ obvious to anyone that Logan would notch up the flirting when Scott was around.”
“Okay…and Carol was into Scott?”
“Mmhhmm. She wasn’t as obvious as Logan, even though she was New York state’s mattress. Maybe Scott was too busy worrying about Logan to notice Carol’s flirting, but whatever the reason, he never really caught on. So that made Carol even bitchier than usual. Like, seriously. She was a hell beast, she –“
Marie holds up a hand so Jubilee can cut that train of thought. No need to wake the “hell beast” currently – and curiously – laying dormant in Marie’s head.
“Yeah, so anyway. Finally, Logan must have gotten it through that thick adamantium skull of his that this whole Jean thing was bad news. He like, totally eased up on the flirting and stuff. It was like he realized that it wasn’t going to happen. It looked like he was really going to move on, y’know?” No, Marie doesn’t know, but she nods anyway.
“So that’s when Carol and Logan decided to hook up. I mean, just because Logan saw the light and found that it wasn’t Jean didn’t make him a saint. I love him, but the guy is a bit of a man-whore. And we’ve already covered that Carol was a slut.” Uh huh. “But…not long after they got together something…changed. Logan started up with chasing after Jean again, but it was…like, totally different. Like, instead of playfully flirting he’d really swing some hard hits, like talking shit about their relationship. He’d go on to Jean about how long she’d been with Scott and she still didn’t have a ring and stuff –“
“But you said Logan wasn’t into commitment, so he wasn’t volunteering to put one on her finger though, right?” Marie’s really getting into this, as confusing as it is. All that’s missing is junk food and nail polish.
“Yeah, I know right? He was talking shit about that, but he’s not the kind of guy to take a knee. I know, I know. You’re not saying anything new to me, but Logan isn’t exactly Mr. Introspection, so who knows what he was thinking. But in any case, he was doing that and really stepping on the gas flirt-wise. Like really amping up the touching and teasing and ick.” Jubes makes a proper finger-in-mouth gagging motion before continuing.
“I hate to say it, and it makes me damn disappointed in the guy, but Logan was wearing Jean down.” Jubes looks like she has a really bad taste in her mouth. “She wasn’t putting up as much of a fight, like, she’d smile and blush more at Logan’s comments and she’d like, let him touch her and corner her and stuff. I tried talking to him about it and how terrible of an idea it was. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of the Jean-Scott duo, but what Logan was doing was still bad news, y’know? Okay, it’s one thing to flirt, but to knowingly tear apart a relationship? Not good. And when I would say something to him, he’d just like, brush me off and tell me that I didn’t know what I was talking about, that…that I was just a –“
“Kid?”
“Yeah! So it was just causing some major drama on the main team and in the mansion and everything. Like, even breakfast turned into a pissing contest between Logan and Scott. So like, Carol tried making the moves on Scott during this whole thing, but he just wasn’t biting, which pissed her off, especially since it looked like Logan was going to get what he wanted. I’m pretty sure…yeah, I’m like one hundred percent sure that she fed Logan bullshit to make him start up with the whole Jean thing again. Like, he seemed like he was totally done with it until he hooked up with Carol!”
“So…but…” Marie runs a gloved hand through her hair in frustration, entirely too caught up in the story. “Why?”
Jubes leans forward, matching Marie’s involvement, probably thrilled to have someone new to hash it out with. “Because if Carol could convince Logan to really go after Jean, like really pursue her hardcore, then she’d have an easier time getting Scott. Plus, if they split, it’d look like Logan’s fault. Carol would conveniently pick up the little Scott pieces at the end of the day.”
Okay…that’s all sordid and juicy, but…
“Why would Carol want to do that? Okay, I get that she wanted Scott somethin’ fierce, but why?”
Jubes wiggles her eyebrows and winks, “Compared to the mighty Wolverine, right?”
Marie waves a gloved hand, dismissing it from the conversation for now, but making a note of it for later.
“Just…on the basis of Scott alone. You said she wanted him from the get go, didn’t back off like Logan did with Jean, then kind of planted Logan as her own personal home-wrecker. All to get Scott for herself. Why? Why did she want him that much?”
Jubilee looks away at that and steals one of the shrugs Marie’s been commandeering all night. “I don’t know.” Then she flicks her eyes back to Marie. “I mean, why would Wolvie want someone like Jean? Maybe it’s not supposed to make sense.”
Now Marie’s the one who wants to flop back, exasperated. She has to remind herself that there is a very hard, very painful window behind her head. Carefully leaning back against it, she slowly shakes her head with her next thoughts. “No, something doesn’t wash. A person has to have more on the line than a raging libido to go through all the trouble you’re sayin’ Carol went through. I don’t see that as enough motivation.”
Jubes blinks. “So what do you mean?”
“Exactly what I just said.”
“So you don’t know anything else?”
That, just like the lack of reasoning behind Carol’s behavior, strikes Marie as very wrong. She narrows her eyes at the girl sitting on her bed. “What do you mean by that?”
“Uh, well…I just thought…y’know since you like, have Carol up there –“ She gingerly points to Marie’s head, “-you’d like…know something.”
Seriously?
“Seriously? Y’told me all this just to see if I could give you the dirt? Just because, thanks to some trick of my mutation, I’ve still got her in my head? Wow. Well fucking played, Jubilee.”
“Hey! That’s not true! I just…” She looks away, unable to meet Marie’s glare and yeah, it is true. Maybe it wasn’t completely thought out beforehand, but Marie doesn’t need to be one of the many telepaths floating around this place to know that Jubilee went into this hoping she could get answers from her.
Jubilee, clearly not used to feeling so shameful, musters up some indignation and faces Marie again, hands fisted at her sides on top of the blue coverlet.
“Look, I just thought you could help, which isn’t totally unreasonable since you’ve still got her in your head.”
“Well, you thought wrong. I told you that it doesn’t work that way with her. I can’t get to her so you’re wasting your damn time. And what does it matter anyway? She’s dead. She’s gone. No reason to get your yellow panties in a twist about the stuff that happened on the team. It’s over.”
“No it isn’t! Yeah, Carol’s gone, but the damage is done, chica. You don’t understand.”
“You’re right, I don’t. Because there’s nothing you can do anyway.” Marie starts ticking off a list on her gloved fingers, “I can’t access Carol’s memories or thoughts. Nobody would believe me anyway even if I did find something. Logan didn’t even believe you when you tried talking to him. And next time you want to fish for information, just be straight with me. Don’t pretend to be nice.” Having said her peace, Marie stands up and heads to the door, holding it open as a clear sign to the girl in yellow. After a glare and a couple of annoyed huffs, Jubilee gets the hint and finally leaves.
Taking Jubilee’s position, Marie drops to the bed, boneless and anticipating a royal headache. Okay, so maybe she didn’t handle that well. She might not have had to attack Jubilee like that; maybe the girl really wasn’t maliciously trying to use Marie…
But hell.
She still feels irrationally pissed. She’s been screwed over like that one too many times not to spring on someone when the situation feels familiar.
Everything Jubilee said is speculation anyway, and more importantly, it isn’t Marie’s problem. Just because she’s the reluctant jailer of Jubilee’s accused, doesn’t mean she has to get involved. Stirring that pot would only lead to a Carol-induced full body shutdown anyway. No, her conspiracy theories are her own. Marie has enough junk to deal with already.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey all. Sorry for keeping you waiting, but school and life have been holding me & my beta hostage and there's just no negotiating. I'm too drained to even come up with anything witty here. *ducks under desk to type this*: To top it all off there's no Rogan interaction in this one. Hey! Hold it! Don't throw that! Just...just take a deep breath...go..go grab that rubber ducky (you know you have one) and just meditate to some images of Bath Time With Wolverine. That do ya good? Feeling any better? Okay, on with the show.
As always, thanks goes out to Moviemom for the beta, which I don't deserve considering I can't format & upload for horsepoo & all those corrections go out the door. Also high five to Rose for kicking my butt in gear.
As always, thanks goes out to Moviemom for the beta, which I don't deserve considering I can't format & upload for horsepoo & all those corrections go out the door. Also high five to Rose for kicking my butt in gear.
Chapter End Notes:
Okay, so I'm sticking with present tense for this story. It's how every chapter from here on up to the thirteenth one I've written has come out. So I know I jumped back & forth in past chapters and that's something that I'll have to change one magical day when I have the time. Sorry for those of you who aren't fans of the tense, but my brain rejected past tense in a fit of seizing agony. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this and are bubbling with questions! Bubbles are good for Wolverine Bath Times!