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“We should start,” said, Emma Frost, the current headmistress of the Xavier Institute for the Gifted and erstwhile White Queen of the Hellfire Club. “I am sure Storm must want to reveal her decision, something we all, especially King T’Challa have been waiting for with bated breath for the last few weeks.”

Her words got chuckles from a couple of people gathered around the table, while most of the others did not even want to or did not pay any attention to her jabber.

“We are still missing one team member,” Beast, Hank McCoy pointed out, drawing everyone’s attention to the single empty chair, the one usually occupied by Wolverine.
“Yes,” Scott nodded. “Logan should be here soon. I gave him an half an hour’s leeway.”
“Scott dear,” Emma daintily flipped her hand, or atleast tried to, her next words having a specific target. “I am sure Logan has some other important work to attend to, some barroom brawl just waiting for him, some two bit ten dollar….”

“Watch it!” A warning shot through her sentence, causing Emma to arch one brow at the speaker. Not what, who she had in mind, but good shot nevertheless.
“You said something….Kitten,” she deliberately used Kitty’s nickname, the one Ororo used for her.
“I said, watch it,” Kitty ‘Shadowcat’ Pryde repeated herself, her tone hard. “Although I am sure you know more about the two bit ten dollar deal than anyone in this room…..maybe with the exception of….” She trailed off, her eyes glaring at the couple sitting a few feet away from her.

“Ooh,” Emma showed mock-fear, muttering under her breath. “Look out; the cat’s got her claws out.”

Stunned at what her Kitten just said and insinuated towards T’Challa, , Ororo kept her eyes away from the accusing eyes of the young woman who had grown up right in front of her. Over the past couple of weeks, Katherine, had grown increasingly militant towards her. There had no reason for this sudden and averse change….except that she too had finally put two and two together and realized what Remy already knew.

Soon after coming to the mansion for the first time, the then incredibly shy and highly impressionable Kitty had bonded to Ororo as a mother figure and to Logan as a father…albeit initially reluctantly on Logan’s part. Even if she did not see it then, over the years she had come to enjoy the camaraderie her two stand-in parents shared. She might not have given thoughts to a possible matrimony or even anything romantic between the two, but never in her wildest dreams did she even envision such a thing happening. Something had happened between the two of them, that much she was sure of now, something to drive such a wedge between the two that Logan had stopped setting foot in the mansion and whatever the reason for that, she knew one thing for sure, she did not like it one bit….just as she did not like the man occupying the space next to Ororo. Not liking him much in the first place, she had almost gone on to hate him…and Ororo by association. It was not that she was taking Logan’s side; it was that, after having lost her ‘biological’ parents, she did not want to lose her X-ones.

“Wheah did the canucklehead fall off too?” Rogue muttered out aloud, her own brain wracking at her. A bit late to arrive on the scene, she too had caught onto the signals, mostly from the way Remy had been behaving. It was as if he was hiding something, something about Ororo. She had even confronted him on it, not getting much for her efforts except for the discovery that whatever it was, it was not directly about Remy….and that it troubled him A LOT.

“He’s not coming.” Everyone’s head whipped to the door, their eyes finding Jubilee and Laura X. “We are here in his place.”

----

“What do you mean he is not coming?” Scott stood up, his eyes narrowing behind his visor. “And you are in his place?”

“Yup,” Jubilee nodded as she turned to Ororo. “Hey Storm,” she purposely wished the windrider, putting on her best devil may care grin.
“Jubilee,” Scott interjected again. “What do you…?”
“Here,” the teenager stepped forward and handed him a piece of paper. It was the same one that Logan had left for them, except that she had hidden the words that were just for her and Laura.

Scott’s face cleared up, only to twist into a frown as he trailed through the contents of the note. “He wants you to sit in for him?” He spoke aloud, his words getting surprised looks from everyone, everyone except for the numb-silent Ororo. It was not like she expected him to come, yet....
“Yup,” Jubilee nodded. “I am the talk and she is the muscle,” she jerked a head towards Laura.
“Scott,” Emma stood up and came to his side. “Why don’t we allow them to sit in? After all, they are representing Wolverine.”

The look Scott gave Emma was a pure, are you out of your mind, one. Not only was she supporting to allow two teenagers to sit in the x-men’s official meeting, but teenagers, one among whom was currently de-powered, essentially human one, and the other, a girl whose case she had vehemently opposed.

‘What game are you playing Emma?’ He thought to himself, getting no reply from the smirking Emma.

What he did not know was that Emma had more than an inkling about the reason behind Logan’s absence and Jubilee and Laura’s subsequent appearance.

-----

“Any objections Cyke,” the right-in-the-eyes look that Jubilee gave Scott was pure Wolverine. “Anyone else?”
“Jubilee,” Scott hissed. “You do remember your position here, don’t you? I can make you two leave this room right now.”
“You can try,” Jubilee was never one to step down from a challenge. “You’ll just have to deal with her,” once again she pointed towards X23.

-SNIKT-

The silent girl straightened her arms and popped the claws from both her hands. She and Jubilee had reached an agreement. Jubilee would do the talking and she the slashing….if and when it came to that. Having worked as an political activist had honed the already ‘motor mouth’ skills the spiky haired Jubilation Lee naturally possessed.

“Like the man said,” Jubilee nicked the note back from Cyclops’ hand. “We are here to represent him. Understand….Bub.”

With that both girls walked over to Logan’s assigned chair, with Jubilee sitting down on it and Laura leaning against the wall, her arms crossed at her chest, the claws of one hand still out.

----

Ororo did not know what to make of this. Was Logan trying to make fun of her, of her decision….of her choice? That would explain him sending Jubilee and X23 in his place.

The events of a couple of nights ago were until fresh and raw in her mind…..her body still tingling from the aftereffects. She touched him, instinctively or deliberately she did not know. That one touch had led to a repeat of their night on the Serengeti plains. Except that this time, Logan did not say anything…not one word, for the entire time they were together. Even when they were finished, he just looked at her, his eyes previously filled with raging pain, emptying themselves into nothingness. Falling back onto his back, he had drawn her close, his silence in that eerily familiar position saying everything he could not. The same silence continued in the morning, as Ororo slipping out of this warm embrace gathered her clothes and herself. Even as she left his room, and then his house, she could feel his eyes boring into her.

Turning back to look at him one last time, before she left again, she felt her heart break into two as he turned away from her. He had not seen her leaving the first time and he was damned if he saw her leave now.

Why didn’t he ask her to stay? Why didn’t she stay? It would have been so easy….so easy.

Just as easy it would have been for her to stay that first time, when he did.

----

“Jubilee,” she leaned forward. “Where-where is he?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Jubilee shrugged the question off, her gaze piercing completely at odds with her laidback attitude. “You know Logan…..don’t you ‘Ro?”

Ororo sat up ramrod straight….the way Jubilee called her ‘Ro, she would have just have easily slapped her. Under her sugarcoated exterior, the pain, the anger, the rage was clear and straining to burst out.

‘What did Logan tell her….them?’ Thought Ororo, her liquid blue eyes losing their brightness as she alternated between Jubilee and Laura. ‘What did he write in that note?’

----

Soon,

“Congratulations Ororo, T’Challa,” Scott and Emma were the first ones to step forward with their best wishes. Scott shook the beaming T’Challa’s hand while Emma (of all people) stepped up and hugged Ororo.

“Always knew you had it in you,” she whispered into the weather witch’s ear. “The way you played him, played them, cold, heartless, ruthless, prime Hellfire Club material.” With the she stepped back, her smirk widening at the wide eyed look of Ororo. Once again it was shown, who was the Queen of this household.

Next was Henry. He settled on a simple hand shake with T’Challa and a friendly hug with Ororo.

Then came Remy and Rogue. While Remy shook T’Challa’s hand, Rogue threw her arms around her friend and teammate, her southern spunk making an appearance.
“Waiht till ya see the bachelorette party Ah will organize fer ya,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

With Rogue stepping back, Remy came in front of his Stormy, his red-black eyes twinkling with love and something that was akin to pity. Although happy for his padnat, he did not need his emphatic abilities to know that her happiness and her decision was not a complete one. Nevertheless, she had made a choice and he would support it….support her, even if he did not agree with her choice. He wasn’t sure if this man was right for her or the other man. What he did not like was the way this whole thing had gone down….and would continue in the future.

Next was Bobby. Bobby had regained his ice powers, but was having problems of his own. Unknown to him, Lorna had lost her powers and had hidden it from the rest of the team….until it was almost too late. Once the secret was out, she left the team, the mansion….and Bobby. One of the original five and thus one of the oldest team members, he knew his duty and fulfilled it, squashing his own desire to accompany her. He still wasn’t quite sure about what would be Storm’s status, now that she had accepted T’Challa’s proposal. Not that he cared anymore….about either of them. As far as he was concerned, they could go to hell. His sudden animosity, arose from him own loss. If it had not been for that mind-meddling bitch Emma, HE could have been the one who left with Lorna. The factor that he would have died from a Sapien-League crazy’s bullet, did not affect his thoughts. Right now, he would give anything to be the one who was with Lorna, his current or ex-girlfriend….he did not know what relation they had left. Not when the one person he had been competing with for Lorna’s affections was the person who was with her….Alex Summers, Havok.

Then came Kitty and Piotr. The couple were making tentative progress themselves, all with Piotr’s return from the dead, Kitty’s loss of her parents and the recent problem they faced with Piotr’s ‘Bloodline’ coming into play.
“Congratulations,” Piotr wished both T’Challa and Ororo, even giving his sister a hug.
“Thank you brother,” Ororo’s smile faltered as she raised her arms to hug Kitty only to have the younger woman step back, turn around and walk away. ‘Kitten,’ her motherly heart cried out. Even though she had become a battle hardened leader, a part of Ororo still wished for simpler times, times when her surrogate daughter, her Kitten wouldn’t have turned away from her.

All the x-men present and accounted for left only Jubilee and Laura. While Laura silently (she didn’t trust herself to speak, not yet) faced off against T’Challa, the King sensing the animosity rolling off the girl, Jubilee leapt up with her usual, if a ‘deliberate’ bit over the top, spirit and threw her arms around Ororo. However, any illusion that Storm might have had about her true knowledge and reaction was smashed with her whispered words.

“Laura can still smell him on you.”

Spoilers: Generation M #2, Colossus – Bloodline (miniseries), Black Panther (#14-18), X-Men #179 and others previously mentioned.

Modified the paragraph about Iceman. Just finished reading X-Men 179 and as posted this chapter today, took the chance to ‘fix’ it. Things may change in the future, but as of now, the time of the fic. this is how it stands.





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