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Aint No Business
Chapter 14

Scott watched as the propmasters and the editing department set up the furniture to get the most sound and light expose for the camera before the scene started again. He saw Big Pete talking to his wife out of his peripheral vision. He didn’t have to eavesdrop to know what was being said. The only way anyone could get a professional response out of Jean, nowadays, was if they stuck their head so far up her ass and kissed it so hard they left lip marks in her colon. As disturbing as that picture was, it was true. Case in point: Big Peter, and Raven.

Scott and Charles had several long talks before this picture started about that. Jean was no longer worth the extra effort. The bad press, and the long list of horror stories from people who had to work for her, made it difficult to hire people around her. Charles told Scott that after this two-picture deal was up, Jean would have to find another studio to work for, find new representation, or start her own company.

There was just one problem. No one in their right mind wanted to work with Jean. There wasn’t a studio on either Coast that would put up with her crap. Her last three agents quit. At the time it wasn’t that big of a deal. She had a secure position with Xavier’s, and it was a few years ago. Jean was able to hold down different acts, as well as her liquor, and her depression. The new company idea was completely out of the question. Jean would have to actually put in some effort behind the camera, out of earshot of the public eye. Scott knew he’d be throwing snowballs in hell before that happened.

He also realized that Jean no longer had the ability to be self sufficient any more. Most of everything had to be done for her. If she had her own production company, he would be doing most of the work. He shook his head to ward of the thought. No! He spent four years of his marriage doing all the hard work for her, while she had her fun. Scott had enough. It was high time that Jean started to take responsibility for herself and her actions.

Scott watched as Peter nearly tripped over himself to get out of the way when Jean went to squeeze his shoulder in gratitude. He then made an excuse to scramble away. He watched her narrow her eyes at his back. Yep, Scott thought, she knew her days were up. Scott wasn’t sure if she knew it was her own fault. Oh well, she was about to find out. He knew that she often behaved the way that she did because Xavier was her safety net.

He stood up and stretched then he reached for his megaphone. “ALL RIGHT EVERYONE TAKE TEN!”

Jean turned her back and started off in the opposite direction, until he called her back. Scott used the patronizing voice she hated, but it always worked.

“What do you want,” she asked with an obnoxious attitude.

“First of all, don’t ever do that again. I am sick and tired of you treating me and everyone else hear like turds because you have problems and can’t control everything. If we have this conversation again, I will cut and edit you down to a glorified extra. Don’t look at me like that, I’ve done it before and I will do it again. You will never get a single award, nor will you ever be more than the aging girl next door, if you keep this up. Got it!”

Jean’s eyes widened just a bit. She realized that Scott was finally doing what she wanted to since the day she met him. He was growing some big hairy balls. It figures, he would use them on her. Life just wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right that he was using her greatest fear against her. She swallowed, tilted her head up in defiance, and wisely kept her mouth shut. He didn’t really talk to her at work unless it was business related. Her curiosity made her behave, for now.

Scott motioned her to follow him to his trailer. When they arrived he told her to have a seat, so she stood. They glared at each other. He went to his desk file and handed Jean her revised contract under Xavier’s new management.

Jean look at the first page, then at her husband, and back again. “Is this some kind of joke? What did Nur and Nova think they were doing?”

“Taking over,” Scott said with no emotion.

“Where’s Lensherr? AND WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO CHARLES?”

“Erik sold the majority of his shares to Nur to keep his seat as a CEO. Nova black balled Charles into it, and basically forced him to retire. Granted he got a four hundred and fifty million dollar retirement package, but I have the feeling he’d rather be making movies. And I suggest you keep reading. Page two is were it gets interesting.”

Jean let gravity plop her down on the leather sofa, but it also brought down a set of real tears that blurred her vision as she continued to read. She looked at the ink in disbelief then pleaded non-verbally with her husband. This couldn’t be happening.

As of the end of production of Blood Money, Jean Marie Grey Summers would no longer be employed at with Xavier Productions soon to be Nur and Nova Films.

Scott didn’t wait for the information sink in. He headed to the door and stopped when he felt her grab his shirt.

“Scott? Where are you going? Aren’t we going to talk about this?”

“Actually Jean, I am going to talk about this.” He saw the question on her face and ignored it. “There are seventy three people on set with us who need to hear this information. Your not the only here. There will be a meeting in the mess hall in twenty minutes.” He walked out without looking behind.

~X~

Logan briskly jogged past the trailers towards the mess hall. He could her sniffling inside Scott’s trailer and he honestly didn’t care and didn’t want to find out what it was about. He hopped that this impromptu meeting wasn’t going to be another lecture by the Boy Scout. God how he hated those. He pushed down the tissues that kept popping up in his pockets as he jogged, and tried to stuff thoughts of Ororo to the back of his mind. Of course it didn’t work.

The fact that he ran just when she was in a vulnerable position, and yet ready to open up, angered him. Why was he always ready and willing to cut and run when it was his time to stand strong. He ran from Itsu, Raven, Jean, and dining and dashing on Ororo less than an hour ago made him feel like an ass. All he wanted to do was to go back and talk it out. He stopped a few feet away from the door and snorted. ‘Talk it out.’ Never in all his life did Logan ever think he was going to use that phrase with a woman, and actually mean it.

He ran his hands through his already funky hair and looked up at the sky. Logan had a sinking feeling. Ro was drifting emotionally, Jean was clingy, and Logan had gotten the strangest feeling when he was heading to the set. While on the drive he passed a beach and found that there was no waves, or birds or any response from nature. It seemed as if something big was comimg, and everyone, including the earth itself, was preparing for it. Logan could have smacked himself. He was never really good with profound thoughts. That’s when he felt it, again. Another tremor. This time there was no greasy food to blame it on. That was the second tremor he felt in a the last three days.

Oh shit.

Logan flew through the corridors down to the mess hall. Now more than ever all he wanted to do was get this over with and go home to Ororo.

‘Home to Ororo.’ That line of thought didn’t bother him now like it did earlier. That was something, wasn’t it? He hoped she would think so too.

He saw the usual crew of Kitty, Big Pete, Hank, and the groupies, Little Peter, Jubilee, and Soorya at a table and joined them. Kitty extended her hand and waved him over. There was a chorus of “Hey Logan” and “how’s Ororo? Is she gonna be ok, soon?,” and “so just what do those legs feel like?” That one came from Parker, who was promptly slapped upside his head from Soorya, Jubilee, and Kitty who had to reach across the table.

“So does what’s going on,” Kitty asked with a bit of apprehension.

Jubilee looked around to see if anyone was watching them and reached into her purse to pull out her video Ipod. “Alright you guys, shut up and listen up. I found this podcast of Access Hollywood this morning, and it isn’t good. It might explain why Miss Biatch isn’t here either.”

Just as she said that a very subdued Jean Grey walked by them. For a brief minute Logan could feel her eyes bore into his back, he didn’t take her bait to turn around and look. He took out one of the tissues and hoped that Ororo would be ok now that he was going to be longer. He sneezed in it, and wiggled his nose to stop the tickling sensation. Everybody stopped and looked at him. Kitty and Hank scooted away from him on both sides.

“Knock it off you two.”

“Hey,”Jubilee said in a sharp whisper, “shut up. I don’t want to get caught with this.”

All conversation at the table stopped and everyone leaned in to hear what was being said on the tiny screen.

There was a blond woman on screen next to the story she was talking about. On the screen was the Xavier Productions logo. She talked about the sudden shift of market shares from the two founders to other CEO’s on the executive board. She said that the current film being shot would be the last one under the name Xavier. Everybody at the table stifled gasped. They quickly pulled themselves together to avoid attention. Scott stopped speaking for a moment to look at them, but continued on with his vocal diarrhea that was masking the truth. Sooraya fumbled inside her niqab and brought a rolled up new issue of People.

Everyone looked at her in wonder.

“What,”she asked. “This thing does more than people think. Its better than a bag of holding plus one.”

Jubilee shook her, “You know for a minute there Soo, I thought you weren’t gonna be a nerd.”

“Maybe I should put it back then.” The whole table lunged for the magazine. “Didn’t think so.”

All of the table fished through the glassy pages, until the article came up. The article gave out confidential information about stock ownership and other things that should have been classified. It looked as if this information was leaked on purpose.

“Oh my god, Charles must be devestated,” Kitty said in a hush. The whole table talked in quiet tones about their unstable futures and the company, and where they’re places would be.

Jean stood next to Scott and didn’t hear a word he was saying. She keep her eyes on the table that was whispering in the corner. All she could make out was things like, “Charles,” and “how could she/he,” “Eric just stood there,” and “what are we going to do?” Not a single person said, I worried about Jean. She has no other projects lined up. What’s going to happen to her?

For Christ sake, she thought. Charles had a four hundred million plus dollars to die on. Scott speech went on and on. She did what she could to bore holes into Logan’s back. He was really into his conversation. It wasn’t until he pulled back and sneezed did she pull her pout into a smile. “Bastard,” she let out. Scott looked at her for a brief second and went back to his speech. She rolled her eyes and went back to eavesdropping. She nearly slapped everyone at the table when someone mentioned Ororo. Then the topic switched to concern about her.

Jean wanted to pull her hair out and scream her lungs off. The woman was nothing more than a sub-par caterer, and she had a restaurant that wasn’t hated. She’d be fine. So what she had pneumonia. It wasn’t gonna kill her. Although, now that she thought about it, she wanted to know how she got it. Damn, where was Raven when she really needed her. Now that she thought about her future, suddenly didn’t like it. If she had to work somewhere else, no Raven. That was *if* she worked. That’s when Scott’s speech suddenly took her attention.

“Listen everyone here in the Guild will still have a job. Those of you who aren’t, will have more detailed explanations of the merge tomorrow. Everyone will get a detailed copy of the new contracts that will finish out this production and lead into the new fiscal quarter,” Scott said before he went into the new schedule changes.

Jean stopped listening again. This was another reason why Scott probably had no pity for her. Ever since they both started out in the business, he had asked begged and pleaded with her to join the Screen Actor’s Guild. She would always laugh in her face. Her big break was just waiting for her, and from there she knew that her career would only go up. Once she became comfortable she’d retire before anything happened. What the hell happened?

She put the blame on Logan. Him and his stupid inspiring dreams. And Scott. His dreams were stupid too. Why didn’t anyone help her with her dreams? When did this all become such a necessary chore?

Just as everyone became really depressed about everything there was another tremor. This time it was enough to jiggle everyone’s chair. There were a few excited chills and for those not used to it they squealed aloud.

Scott interrupted thoughts of impending doom. “Enough people! There will be a few tremors, nothing to big. There’s been some seismic activity in several places around the island. But nothing to write home about. But if by noon the tremors increase in intervals and get stronger we will call it a day, and everyone goes home, got it. No going out, and no hanging by windows.” He then went into earthquake safety rules, and the whole room groaned. He looked up because an odd movement caught his eye. There at the window waving at him was little Nathan in his father’s arm. Madeline was there too looking at Alex then to Scott with a worried expression. Scott was stuck speechless. “Alright you know what,” he slowly dragged his eyes away from his brother and his family and looked at the crew, “enough for the day. Go home, we’ll pick up if the tremors stop by tomorrow or the next day. Just keep yourselves safe. The new contracts will be here when we start filming again.” No one moved. “Seriously people. Take a day!”

Most people were still sitting there in shock. Only Logan didn’t have to be told a third time. He dashed out and gave his table a wave, and Kitty a thumbs up.

Jean wanted to throttle everyone. Then she followed her husbands eyes, and nearly snapped. She did not want to be right about seeing her sister’s family outside the glass window. Her sister, her husband, who was madly in love with her to no other end, and her.........son. Maddy’s beautiful brown haired blue eyed son. Little Nathaniel. Jean remembered how those eyes would look at her as if she held all the answers in the world, when she would bend down to talk to him, or lift him in her arms. That look was the same his father had given her, so long ago.

His father.

Her husband.

Scott.

Hers.

As everyone filed out Jean kept her eyes on her defiant sister and was carefully choosing each and every word she was going to say. When they were alone, Scott stepped in her view.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said.

“What?”

“Before you go ballastic, take your medicine, and think.”

Jean just sucked in her teeth and glared at Scott. “Hmph, about what?”

“Think about what it’s like to have a marriage that lasted thirty two days before it imploded in on its self through no fault of your own.” With that he walked out into the hallway for the inevitable confrontation with his brother.


~X~

Ororo slowly blinked herself awake and yawned with nasty cotton mouth. Her neck was stiff and unyielding and her arm that she was laying on was covered in her own drool. Very attractive, she thought.

Speaking of being attractive, where was Logan? She looked around and saw that his favorite blue quilted vest was missing. Didn’t he say something about a meeting?

Ororo sat up on the couch and stretched. It was the first time in three weeks she could do it with no aches and pains. Logan was a godsend, and a whole lot more. He was everything that the other certain someone wasn’t. One of the things she lo...ed and hated about Logan was his amazing ability to be easy going, free flowing and painfully complex at the same time.

He was able to be commitment free and yet he through himself head first into things wholeheartedly at the same time. How in the world did he pull that off?

What bothered Ororo the most is that, now that she cold finally label Logan, she began to second guess herself. As she began to get dress, she thought about why she pegged Logan as ‘commitment-free.’ She pulled on a tight cotton tee and a pair of embroidered cargo khakis. Just as she began to tangle through her things for a pair of matching socks, she thought she felt the ground turn to wiggly jello. As soon as she had the time to register it, the movement stopped.

She thanked her lucky stars. That could have been bad, very very bad. If there was one thing that unnerved her more than enclosed spaces it was earthquakes. That was mainly because quakes lead to one being in small spaces. In total, that equals bad for her.

Ignoring her mismatched ankle socks, she grabbed her giant purse and ran down the stairs. She needed to have another one-on-one with Scott about the upcoming Imperial Palace scene. It was supposed to show a dinner that had European and Japanese dishes as well as fusion meals that were going to be used to impress Western envoys in the movie. As amazing as Kurt was, there was no way she was going to leave all of that up to him. She managed to flag down a taxi and head down to the set.

Logan would be pissed as a buffalo in a steak house, but Scott was counting on her, and she couldn’t help but to like working with the guy, even with his faults. He made a great man-in-charge, he’d make an even better one if he wasn’t so keen on the facade he put up. He wanted people to think he was a hard ass with a stick up there. Everyone knew that he was a teddy bear who cared a lot. Ororo thought that he believed that he would loose respect if he dropped his mask. In reality, it would be just the opposite. What on earth would give him that idea, anyway? Oh yeah, his wife. A sly smile crept across her face as she thought about Jean realizing that she wasn’t the only person who ever existed. Being homebound made Ororo restless and feeling a little naughty, she leaned forward and said, “Haiyaku, onigaishimasu.” [Hurry please] The driver nodded his head, and put the pedal to the metal. She’d been out a while and just knew that real drama was about to happen. Then she’d remembered a promise she maid. She looked for her telephone in her knock-off Berkin bag, and speed dialed Ali’s number.

“Rrrrooo [yawn], it’s two in the morning, what do you want?”

“Girl, please. You don’t sleep until after three, and you asked me to call you, and believe me, you want to hear this.”

Ali sat up straight and gripped the phone, “Please tell me it’s not Kurt!”

Ororo smacked her head. She forgot how paranoid Ali could be. “No no no. It’s not anyone you know personally. But it is someone we’ve met before...someone big.”

“Oh dear Lord! You have drama news. SPILL! NOW! Please please, tell me its about wanna be worshiped Looney Jean. I gotta tell you what I heard.”

“Uh uh. I called you first, so I go first. Besides, my shit is gooood, and it smells like roses.”

“Apparently crazy rubs off. Your shit smells like rotten sewage, and my shit is better any way. It’s worth it’s weight in gold. But your right, you go first,” Ali conceded.

“Alright, get this Jean was cheating on Scott.”

“Well duh.”

“A month into their ten year marriage.”

“WHAT!”

“Your not going to believe with who.” A slew of curses followed her pause, as well as a threat of violence if she didn’t continue. Ali hated being the last one in on the loop, so Ororo obliged. She inhaled to prepare for the shock. “James Howlett.”

“James? That sounds familiar. Wait, hold up. Isn’t that your Lo...oh my god. That’s Scott’s friend, and your... I’m confused.”

“First of all Logan isn’t my anything. Friend, yes. Not anything else, I think? Besides, that’s only half of it.”

“Not anything else? You think? Half? Do tell.”

“I can’t go into detail, but Jean wasn’t the only one cheating. Scott had been sleeping with, get this, Maddie Pryor, and they have a kid. He cheated after he found out about his wife and his best friend, four years later. His brother must be devastated.”

“Maddie Pryor! MY STYLIST!!! Princess’s sister! Great googly moogly! Jesus. Oh well, I can top that. Jeannie got fired as a condition to the merge. Bloodmoney is her last picture with these producers. She cost to much money and isn’t that profitable anymore.”

“No way. Damn. Logan didn’t say anything about that,” Ororo frowned and didn’t like about what she came up with as to why he didn’t say anything.

“Here’s the kicker. Her lawyers are saying that dollar’s aren’t the reason why she got fired.”

“Oh shit Ali...please don’t say what I think your gonna say.”

“Her representation is saying that she’s preggers, and that’s why she got pink slipped. But this firm has been known to play dirty.”

Ororo couldn’t hear Ali as she chatted away a mile a minute. She heard something about an international tour, and she’d be in Tokyo a few days, but everything else didn’t connect. She was still stuck on “preggers.” As she paid her fair and got out, she didn’t even feel the tremor that made the cab burn rubber on the way back to the highway.

~X~

Logan had waited for twenty minutes to try and move more than six feet on the highway. People where all headed south out of the range of the quake that was reported to be mere hours away. Of course everyone wanted to go to the same place at the same time. So the southbound highway was bumper to bumper just inches apart.

To bid his time he decided to call Ororo to check up on her. That’s what he told himself. It had nothing to do with being apart from her for hours for the first time in a couple of weeks, or missing the sound of her soothing voice, even when she was sick. He was merely concerned about her health. He hoped the more he told himself that, the more likely it was to be true.

Hearing the phone ring and ring in the room with no answer, he tried Ororo’s cell.

“Ro?”

“Hi Logan, were are you?”

“On the highway stuck about five minutes from the set, you sound like your better.”

“Much better! I even got out today. I’m still out actually.”

“Oh really. Are you at the coffee shop at the corner?”

“Nope. I’m heading to Scott’s office. I told him I’d meet with him about an important scene coming up.”

Logan could have throttled her right then and there. Being in the far left lane on a highway with no barriers it was easy for him to do a 180 turn and head right back to the set. Ignoring the glares and the honking he speed back on the empty side up the highway.

“Listen to me, hun. I need you to stay right where you are and wait for me. Please?”

“Logan, common. I’ll be fine.”

“FINE! Are you seri...” He stopped in mid sentence and inhaled deeply. Ro was stubborn mull-headed and thick as a fortress wall. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t have anything that could penetrate. Logan felt the lower half of his body grin at the thought of penetration. His foot slammed on the gas to help jar his thoughts back in place. “Have you ever been in a big earthquake before?”

“No,” was her mumbled reply.

“Never. That’s what I thought. There’s no where to run. Everything is fair game. I can’t...Please, baby. Just wait for me. I’ll be there in ten minutes. I want you to be back at the shock absorbent god damn hotel.” He heard her suck in her teeth. “I just want to be with you. Wait in the reading room for me, ok?” with that he shut of the cell and took the sharp right turn that took him into the studio.

Ororo was struck back by his sincerity and the worried tone. She’d seen it when they went to the hospital and when she woke up from passing out. She seen it again that night in shower. Logan was probably using it because he knew it was her weakness. All right, she thought to herself, I’ll just wait in the reading room. She hoped he was over reacting.

Ororo felt the building shake beneath this time for a full minute rather that a few short minutes, and that’s when she started running blindly. In her haste she had ran completely past her intended destination. One right, two more left turns, and long corridor. She span around widely. Where the hell was she? There was another huge quake. It threw Ororo off balance and she was left clinging to the corner of the wall to regain some kind of balance. Before she had time to get her barings she had heard some very familiar loud voices screaming at each other, again.

“Scott, you’re a complete asshole,” the new male voice said with seething anger.

“Alex, not in front of Nathan! Please,” a new female voice whined.

Ororo peeked her head around the corner just a bit, Scooby Doo style, while she was crouching to get a look see at the angry voices she didn’t recognize.

With their backs facing Ororo stood Jean with her hips to the side and one arm hanging on it and next to her arms length away was her husband, Scott. He had on a baseball cap and those painfully sexy Oakleys with the red lenses.

Scott took of the cap and ran his hands through his handsome tousled hair and rubbed his stubbly cheeks.

Wow, Ororo thought. He has a lot on his mind to have not styled his hair and let shaving go. She knew she really should have gone else where, but...it was good to be moving around in a earthquake, right? That’s what she told herself to make the eavesdropping guilt go away.

“Maddie, just stop. He’s got every right.”

Maddie! Ororo peered so she could have a closer look at the stylish woman actually facing her. Holy Shit! Jean and Madeline were really twins. Ororo didn’t know why she was so shocked. She had seen both separately. Hell, she’d even gone a shopping session with Betsy and Maddie. Why hadn’t she put two and two together when Jean blew through her restaurant?

“Of course, your going to take her side...sweetheart,” Jean said.

Everyone stopped and nearly gasped at that remark. The sisters glared at each other, the brothers glared at Jean.

“What the hell is she talking about?”

Ororo stifled a scream at the husky voice that shocked her from behind.

“Lo“mmmph,” She didn’t have the opportunity to finish because his hand was over her mouth.

“Sorry, baby. But we need to go.”

She held her index finger to her lips. There was no way in hell that she was going to miss this. He squatted down to her level and slowly to her finger away and leaned in for an unrivaled slow kiss.

“You don’t,” he bent his head for another short but sweet kiss and nipped at her plump bottom lip. “You don’t want to hear this.”

“Oh yes I do!”

Logan looked crestfallen. Ororo looked away and found the ground fascinating. Apparently his need to protect Jean hadn’t gone away. It almost appeared to be stronger.

Ororo stood up and hugged herself against the wall.

“Ro?”

She just glared at him. Logan was merely left wondering what had happened in mere seconds. One minute she was pliable in his arms, and the next she put up a fortress wall. The only time that happened was when he was the first to pull away. Didn’t she understand that he came for her.

Logan had pulled on her hand to make her leave when the four voices picked up again. She tugged her arm away and pressed against the wall.

“Jean have you lost you mind completely,” Scott asked. “I wasn’t even defending her. I was trying to encourage my brother and apologize to him. Lord knows non of this is fault.”

“So what are you saying, Scott?” Jean did not like where this conversation was heading.

“What he’s trying to say, Jean,” Alex cut, “is that he done some shitty things, but he did it as a sorry side of retaliation.” Alex never did like Jean. She was always one of those wanna princesses, and a near idiot to boot. She hated him because he treated her like a bratty child, and he loved getting in her face about her immaturity. Why did she always believe that everything revolved around her? When it didn’t she would go off and get her own attention no matter who it hurt. He hated what she had put his brother through when they were dating. When ever she didn’t get attention from him how, when, and where she wanted it she always went for the kill with his best friends.

Then there was the time when she got bored, and when after him.

“Mommy?” “Daddy?” Nathan looked up at his mother, and squeezed his father’s hand. He didn’t like the way his aunt and uncle looked. They always looked mad at each other, but this was different. Everybody seemed mad.

“This isn’t my fault, Alex!”

“Of course Jeannie. Why don’t you explain again, how Howlett managed to trip inside you with his pants down over and over? I forgot how fucking your husband’s friend less than a month in your marriage can be an accident.”

“You knew about that?”

Alex pointed and laughed at her. “Of course I knew.”

“Well then if everyone knew, why didn’t anyone say anything?” Jean was really beginning to hate all of these self-righteous asses.

Maddie just rolled her eyes, “why so you could just blame it on other people.”

Jean was about to rush at her sister until Scott blocked her path.

Logan ran his thumb slowly down Ororo’s arm that was fattened against the wall. She turned to look at him with an expressionless face, but wide cobalt eyes. He kissed the top of her shoulder and asked quietly, “can we go now?”

Just as they turned around to leave, the entire building swayed violently as if it were out at sea. Logan and Ororo were tossed un-gracefully in the hallway in a tumble of tangled limbs. The others were far too busy at trying to stay upright to notice. Jean tried to stand by holding onto the wall, but the plaster cracked beneath her palm. Scott was knocked on his behind and was left to stare at the ceiling as it began to crack and buckle. He saw his brother clutching...his son, and they looked at the ceiling than at each other and nodded.

Alex took Maddie by the arm and tackled her away from the weak point in the ceiling while Scott did the same with Jean but in the opposite direction towards a bewildered Logan and Ororo.

When the debris came down Scott made sure that Jean was safe, and Alex had his family on the other side of the blocked hallway. The last thing he saw was a tearful Ororo watching the falling debris in absolute horror and Jean running towards him He didn’t have time to think about anything else before he was knocked unconscious.

“Scott! SCOTT!” Jean was shaking violently as she tried to listen to her husbands heart.

“Jean stop! Don’t move him,” Logan commanded. He has seen head wounds like this many times in the Special Forces. He bent down to listen to Scott’s pulse in his wrist, and took off his quilted vest to prop up his head. While he was trying to determine Scott’s condition and keep Jean calm, he looked over at Ororo and curled up with her knees to her breast and staring blankly at a wall with tears streaming down clear eyes.

He grabbed Jean’s shoulders and shook, “for once, focus on Scott. He needs you now more than ever.”

He walked over the debris and slid down next to Ororo. He remembered how she told him about her immediate dislike to a lot of areas in Japan because of closed spaces. One of the reasons she didn’t like Tokyo a lot. He looked around the space they found themselves in. The ceiling was only about seven feet from the floor because of the weakened frame, and the back way of the corridor was also blocked of from another cave in of ceiling debris. They were stuck in a space of ten feet by four feet.

Ororo whimpered in his shoulder. He kissed her head and buried his nose in her loose white curls. He had failed her.

Jean placed her husband’s head in her lap and let her tears fall. So many un-voiced thoughts ran through her head. Sure she had wanted Scott to suffer for making her miserable, but not like this. Never like this. All she wanted was his attention. The kind he gave when she used to walk in a room, or when she showed up at his place unexpectedly. The same kind of looks and kisses Logan seemed to always have ready for her. Until recently. She was going to tell Scott today. Sure she was late with it, but it would be better late than never, right.

She kissed his unresponsive lips and whispered gently into them, “Guess what, Slim? Your gonna get your birthday wish. I hope it’s a girl. Do you remember that one social worker who was always nice to you. She even made sure you got your special glasses. I remember her. Wasn’t her name Rachel? I’ve always liked that name. Hope you do to.” She let more tears flow as she rocked his head in her lap. “I’m so sorry, love.”




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