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*Tring Tring…Tring Tring*

--

“How long has it been?” A pairs of deep blue eyes rested on the solitary figure seated on the stairs below, a couple of hundred feet from the window that the person was observing from.

“Almost three hours,” a cultured but currently tired voice answered from inside the room, its owner kneading the side of his head in an effort to relieve some of the tension clouding his mind. Sometimes being a telepath wasn’t all that bright a proposition, and for Charles Xavier this was one of those times.

“Three hours?” Henry McCoy’s blue form turned away from the window to face his former mentor. “Charles….”
“Even when she went inside last time, it was for only a few minutes,” Xavier continued his revelation. “…and to get James to back to his room. No one has been able to get her to come back inside.”

“Charles…Professor,” with one last glance outside, Hank left his position and walked up to the Professor table and settled down on one of the empty chairs. “You should have told him.”
“I know that,” sighed Charles.
“He wouldn’t have left if he knew the truth.”
Another sigh. “I know that too.”
“So why didn’t…” Henry stopped midway in his question. He knew what the answer to his question would have been, and the way Charles lifted his head to face him, the helplessness that shimmered in his aging eyes, told him that the Professor had asked himself the same question…over and over again, to come up with same answer….Every. Single. Time.

“I take that Jubilation has also taken an indefinite leave.” It was a lame effort on Henry’s part to try to change the direction of the conversation. But with the recent events in the mansion and the even more recent report that he had just given to the Professor, any conversation was hard in coming.
“Yes.” A few seconds of silence and then, “She will not be returning to the mansion anytime soon…if at all. Logan, before he left, made arrangements with Mr. Murdock for her living, studies and other expenses.”
“Matthew Murdock,” rolling the name over his tongue, Henry wondered aloud, “He is a competent…an excellent lawyer, and honorable to a fault. Almost gives lawyers a bad name. A good choice.”
“Yes.”
“It makes one wonder…” this question was one that had been troubling not Henry but the other mansion residents who had come to know about Logan’s choice for his legal affairs. “..why didn’t Logan avail of Mr. Murdock’s services during…” ‘…the divorce proceedings,’ was left unsaid.

“I…don’t know.” Charles answered. Lately, these two words had found their use more and more frequently, much to his chagrin as he found himself embroiled in a web of lies that he himself had helped to weave.

“…don’t know.”

---

*Click*

“You’ve reached,” the electronic voice started, “Logan,” a familiar deep voice interjected with the name, leaving the rest of the default message. “Please wait for the beep before leaving your name, message and phone number.”

“Thank you”

---

Earlier in the week,

For Ororo, things had steadily and lately rather rapid gone from bearably okay to bad to what they were now, the lowest she had ever felt in her life. Before this she had thought that nothing could surpass the pain and loss that came from Logan leaving her and the subsequent end of their marriage. But now, she understood that the last, Logan hadn’t left…not truly, not like this time. Now, not only was he gone from her life, he had also made arrangements so that their paths would never have to cross again.

He had severed all ties that held them…their hearts together.

And she was to blame for it.

The only thing that brought some light, in all the darkness of her loss, both of Logan and from what would happen once Kendall and James came to know about the decision that their father had made, the only thing that gave her some respite was the hope that it was all going to work out in the end.

‘It is for the best.’ Those five words had become her mantra now, one that she found herself chanting more and more frequently, lately on almost nonstop repetitions.

Even after three days, she still hadn’t been able to come up with a way of breaking the news to her children that their father won’t be coming to pick them up for either the upcoming weekends or for who knows how many future ones. James, she knew would accept it with a simple nod or at the most a few shed tears. It was Kendall who she was worried about, not only for her reaction but also for the possible fall out it might have, especially now. For even though the Professor had hypothesized that unlike her, Kendall’s powers were tied into her instincts rather than her emotions, Ororo could not help but worry about it. For more than decade, she had lived and seen the Wolverine inside Logan, and deny as much as she would, even Ororo would have to accept that the same Wolverine, the same beast, or at least a part of it, existed within Kendall.

Accepted the any emotional fluctuations from Kendal wouldn’t affect the weather in the same way it did for Ororo, but as with Wolverine, Kendall too would have a lower threshold for lashing out.

Ororo remembered how agitated Logan had been during her labor with Kendall, how he almost lost it, going into a berserker rage when complications from sudden ruptures caused her to bleed profusely. It was only Jean’s and the Professor’s continuous presence both within her and his minds that averted what would surely have been a disaster.

--

Lost in her thoughts, on her way back to her suite after her classes, she almost missed the figure slinking away, disappearing into the shadows….almost.

One look and Ororo knew it was. Jubilee.

Shutting off, or at least trying to, the mother in her who wanted to call out and go her elder daughter, the suddenly tired weather goddess trudged to her door. Finding it open, knowing that Jubilee had been in her room, she stepped inside and made her way to her bed…stopping midway as her caught sight of something out of place on her dresser.

It did not take her long to realize what was different, what had changed, what was there now that hadn’t been there just a few hours ago.

A small, silver framed photo of her, Logan, Kendall, baby James…and holding him, beaming for the camera, Jubilee.

The one last thing that Jubilee had kept as a memory of her family, one that she had lost much too soon.

What was even more glaring was the worn out nature of the photo. It had been, not once but repeatedly, taken out from its silver casing and caressed reverently.

That was Jubilee’s last day as a resident of the Xavier mansion.

----

*BEEP*

“Hello. Daddy?! Daddie, its me. Kendall.”

---

Now,

“How are you feeling?” Stepping through the west entrance, Scott Summers settled down on the couch in front of the television of the main recreation room of the mansion.

At getting no answer, he tried again, knowing that it was not the movie that had her complete attention…her thoughts. “Ororo.” He rested a gentle hand on her arm.

“Huh.” It was as if a spell had been broken, a moment of confusion flashing in her previously vacant eyes. Settling onto Scott, she gave a slight nod of recognition. “Yes Scott?”
“How’s the movie?”
“Movie?” Almost as if as an afterthought, Ororo comprehended where she was. “Oh. It-its…good.”
“I am sure it is,” reaching for the remote, Scott pressed the power button to switch the video off. “Ororo…” he hesitated, not wanting to ask the same ‘want to talk about it’ question. “We good?” He settled on a simple two word query.

The couple of seconds of silence seemed to stretch for infinity, and then. “Yes Scott. We good,” she smiled, her barely disguised sadness clear to even his visor covered eyes.
“Ororo.” The way he spoke her name, told Ororo that her lie didn’t hold water, not in front of him. He knew her too long and too well to get duped by her cool controlled exterior.
“Okay, not so good,” she relented, her lips curving up in a repeat of her previous smile. “getting there.”

“Want to t…” force of habit, the taboo question almost slipped out. “Want to go out for a walk?”
“Maybe later.” Ororo placed her hand over his, squeezing it gently. “Right now, I….” she stopped at the rapid thumping of young feet in the corridor outside, her entire being seemingly shrinking into itself…as if in pain.

Neither of the adults needed to speak about the cause of this, or what was happening outside. It wasn’t anything that hadn’t already happened today.

Three hours to the clock, Kendall Logan was making her trip inside, to do something that she had done thrice already…make a phone call…to the phone number that her father had given her.

----

“Daddy’s its five a clock. We are waitin’ for you. James fell asleep but he even said when you come to wake him up. When are you coming to pick us up daddy?”

“Come soon. Muaaah. 'm Kendall.”

----

What neither she nor her mother knew that her every single call although to the right number, wasn’t reaching its destination….

….with each left message being stored on the phone currently in a safe box in an office not even a hundred feet above them.

---

At the same time, there was another call being place from somewhere within the mansion, only this was being made to a different destination….New Orleans.

“Come on Remy. Pick up sugah. Pick up. Ah really need ya t’ come back. Come back now.”

Note: Next. There is a lot of jumping about, in places, with characters and even into time, finally landing in….well, you’ll have to read for that.

Don’t worry, its not a time travel fic….just the normal flow.

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