[Reviews - 25]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story |
Printer Chapter or Story |
ePub eBook Chapter or Story |

Has been viewed 907 times

- Text Size +




Chapter 10

Jean made a mental note that she would need to tell Rogue something. She remembered, years ago, Rogue making a comment that Jean and Scott never seemed to argue and Jean having to insist that they sometimes did disagree. One morning Jean silently wished, almost, that she could share with Rogue the argument that she and her husband had just engaged in.

They had been leisurely walking along the lake. Jean had begun to reminisce. Being pregnant made her think, naturally, about her life on earth before the X-men - about the family into which she had been born.

“Sometimes I forget what they look like,” Jean admitted to Scott. “I wish we hadn’t had to leave earth so quickly. I wish we somehow had some pictures of them”.

“I know, Jean,” Scott said. “I can imagine it must be hard for you to be so far from them”. He paused and added, “I guess in a way I’m lucky. My only family is here. I don’t have anyone back on earth to miss”.

“And I do miss them,” Jean said. “My parents, my sister, my niece and nephew. None of them even know that we’re going to be parents soon”. She paused and then an idea came to her. “Scott, can we replicate a camera? I don’t know how much dilithium it would take. But I wish we could take some pictures of the baby when he’s born. It would also be nice to have some pictures of me pregnant. But our baby “ once he’s here “ will grow up so fast! If we had some pictures of him, it would help”.

“It would be nice to have them,” Scott responded. “But Jean, every time we replicate something, it costs us dilithium. And we have a limited supply of dilithium and no way to get more. We need to hold the line and only replicate things that we need”.

“Does a camera really require that much dilithium, Scott?” Jean asked, trying to keep her tone light.

“Well, it’s definitely not like replicating a meal. A camera has complex parts. It certainly wouldn’t require a *low* amount of dilithium”.

“But Scott,” Jean began again, “we’re talking about getting pictures of our son. He’ll only be a baby for a short amount of time. And besides, we use the Danger Room twice a day. That takes up a lot of energy”.

“But the Danger Room is a requirement. We’re a team of fighters, after all,” Scott insisted.

“Can’t we at least ask the Professor and Storm about this?”

“No, I don’t think we can,” Scott said, trying to keep his voice gentle and not overly stern. “I’m one of the leaders of this team; we need to be role models. If we get approval to do this, then we can’t say no when…when someone wants to replicate a movie or a new board game or clothes and shoes that they don’t need. We make enough exceptions and we’ll run out of dilithium before we figure out a way off this planet…we don’t even have any idea how or when we’ll be able to leave here. We don’t want to have to someday not have enough food for our son because we wasted dilithium on a camera to take pictures of him”.

“Do you really think it will come to that, though? Don’t you think we’ll find a way to get more dilithium one way or another “ I don’t think Alpha Flight would exactly let us starve before they’d share some of their power source with us. Come on, Scott,” Jean encouraged.

“No, Jean. And I’m saying no as the co-leader of the team, not as your husband. I stand by what I said. We need to be role models. I don’t want the team getting angry at us because we were given an exception to the rules”.

“But none of them are expecting a baby,” insisted Jean.

“That’s not the point,” Scott said firmly.

Jean muttered a few words under her breath.

“What was that, my dear?” Scott asked. His question had carried a slightly playful tone but both members of the couple were getting exasperated and knew it.

“Oh, nothing, dear,” Jean answered. “Just a hope that you’ll be more flexible as a parent than you are in other areas of your life!”

The two had then spent the rest of the morning apart just to take some time to cool down. When they next saw each other, each had missed the other. They quickly kissed and made up, and agreed that this was not worth staying angry at each other.


***

The day after my Danger Room debut, Hank asked me if I wanted to spend some time working on target practice. I thanked him, but Jean Paul had already said he would work with me on that in the afternoon. So my boyfriend and I worked together in a sectioned-off part of the Danger Room while the other fighters that day went on with their simulation.

You know, riding around on an ice slide was fun but target practice was really boring. I knew what the others had said after the Danger Room session had been right though; I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Jean Paul told me that aim is something that can be improved, that it’s a learnable skill. So we worked on it that afternoon.

We were nearing the end of the session when Jean Paul’s communicator beeped.

“It’s Walter,” we heard on the other end of it. “Can you come here? Your sister is in a mood”.

“Ah, she is always in a mood! Is it really worse than normal?” Jean Paul asked.

“Look, she’s been driving me up the wall for two days straight now and I’ve had all I can take. You haven’t been spending that much time with her lately. So can you kind of…take over for a bit?” Walter really sounded like he was at the end of his rope.

Jean Paul sighed. “If I must. Where are you?”

“Our room”.

“I’ll be right there”. He turned to me and added, “She is like a child”. He gave me a quick kiss and then made like he was going to leave, but spun on his heel before he left.

“There is one thing I keep forgetting to say to you,” Jean Paul began. His voice was low but he spoke with an urgency too. “It is about Jubilee. I know that all of the men are after her. Tell her that Radius is no good”. He took a quick glance towards the rest of the Danger Room, as if to ensure that Radius was out of earshot.

I smiled. “I kinda picked up on that already,” I said. “His incident with Rogue didn’t leave much doubt”.

Jean Paul still sounded serious; was having nothing to do with my more casual tone. “He wants only one thing. Unless that is what Jubilee wants as well, he is no good for her. He once told my sister that if she ever got tired of Walter, she should go to him. My sister has many flaws, but she would never cheat on her boyfriend. Some people have no morals!”

“Thanks for the tip. I think Jubilee sees how Radius is and she’s not all that interested, but I’ll say something to her to make sure she knows”.

With that, Jean Paul said, “a bientot”, gave me a peck on the mouth and disappeared in a flash.

For the remainder of the session, I tried, I really did. The program got harder as you progressed and I think I hit less than half the targets.

When it was finished, Rogue and Gambit approached me.

“You did a nice job, sugar,” Rogue said.

“With the target practice? C’mon, I was terrible!”

“It takes time. But you’re off to a good start and you oughtta be proud”.

I always want to start talking in a Southern accent when I converse with Rogue. Her accent is somehow so contagious.

“She be right,” Gambit added. “Welcome back to trainin’. If we back on earth, we buy you a drink to celebrate”.

I was really sincerely touched, though also feeling ridiculous at the attention. I wasn’t even doing that well! But I thanked them and left it at that.


***

Iceman was not the only one who had a discussion after a Danger Room session. Forge also approached Storm after training. “Are we allowed to compliment our leaders?” he asked. “Because you were amazing just now”.

Storm smiled. “Forge, please, I hope that no one comes to regard me “ or Cyclops “ as being in a separate category simply because we are leaders. I will happily accept any sincere compliment”. She then added, “And you fought very well too. I hope that someday we can win against FOH and we are lucky to have you with us”.

“We’re the lucky ones, to have you as a leader”.

Storm made a few observations. The look on Forge’s face and the body language he was using suggested that perhaps more was going on here than a discussion of a Danger Room session. Could Forge have heard about her quarrel with Wolverine? If that was the case, Storm marveled at the way word could spread so quickly on Haven. She also noticed that everyone else had left the Danger Room and the two were now alone.

“Listen, Storm, I just wanted to say that if you ever would like someone to talk to, about anything, I would certainly like to be your friend”.

Storm’s first reaction was slightly negative. If this was a come on, she didn’t care for it. She found Forge attractive, always had, but did not desire him the way she acutely did Wolverine. She was also still reeling at the notion that gossip may have spread about her disagreement with Wolverine. However, Storm tempered her reaction with compassion. She reminded herself that she could totally be misreading the situation, and that Forge had always seemed a sincerely caring person.

So she opted for a gentle approach. “Thank you, Forge. I appreciate that. Now if you’ll excuse me”. With that, she flew off.


***

I had an interesting interaction with Hank the other day. Northstar was showering after a Danger Room session, and Hank looked glad to run into me in the hall. “May I have a word with you in private?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said, and he led me to his room.

Usually I never felt awkward around Hank. It was nearly impossible to. But he looked embarrassed and flustered, and words seemed to be failing him, which was really odd. When the guy who can quote poetry from memory isn’t sure what to say, you know something’s up.

“I simply wanted to inquire…knowing that the matter is none of my business, of course, but as a doctor and as a friend, I just wanted to ensure that safety and protection are not forgotten…sometimes, I have heard, in the heat of situations we make decisions that are not ““

I took a guess at what he was getting at. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’re not doing any of the real risky stuff yet, but when we do, we’ll use condoms”. Hank had had this conversation with me years ago, back on earth. Maybe he felt I needed a reminder. Then I had a moment of fear that perhaps I’d guessed wrong on what we wanted to discuss with me in the first place.

“Thank heavens,” he said, assuring me that I had correctly figured out the topic. “Perhaps you should even replicate some in advance and have them with you”.

I decided to make a joke of it. “I’ll carry them with me at all times, okay? I won’t leave my room without them!” I then had to add, seriously, “Thanks for your concern for me, old buddy”.


***

Jubilee wondered if she had somehow developed psychic powers. She knew, from the moment Sam Guthrie approached her that afternoon, what he was eventually going to ask.

Sam asked her if she wanted to go out canoeing. She speculated that he wasn’t being terribly original, though she reminded herself to cut him some slack. It was not like they had a ton of options either, especially for a place for two people to get away, alone.

As Cannonball rowed the canoe, Jubilee thought about her situation. She dearly wanted a boyfriend. Although the attention had initially been flattering, she was now tired of all the buzz and activity around her with different males approaching her. She knew that people had been gossiping about her, wondering who (if any) she would pick being the only single female on the planet. And Jubilee had been deciding that Cannonball was probably the best of the lot. He was on her team and it seemed easier to date another X-man than someone in Alpha Flight, especially since it was likely that the two teams would part sooner or later. Jubilee look a lot of pride in being an X-man. Wolverine liked Cannonball, he was closest in age to her, and she was comfortable with him. He didn’t make her heart sing though, but none of the others really did either - though she did find Radius to be very attractive, physically.

“Hey, Sam…you can kiss me if you want,” she said out of the blue. He was so painfully shy that she decided to make it easy for him.

“I can?” he asked, hardly believing his ears.

“Yes. I mean, if you want to”.

“I do!” he insisted.

It was awkward. The canoe rocked as they shifted position for the kiss. Jubilee had never been kissed before. She tried to think of whether Sam had or not and mused that perhaps he had. A few things he had said about his life in Kentucky had led Jubilee to think that he had been popular before anti-mutant bigotry took over and that maybe he’d had a girl, though the awkwardness of the smooch led Jubilee to wonder again. All of these thoughts swarmed through Jubilee’s head and she hardly thought of the kiss itself.

Sam talked about his family for the remainder of their canoe ride. Jubilee had heard him mention them before “ he was obviously very close to his parents and sister and missed them horribly. She had a hard time relating to that since the X-men were so definitely her only family; she could truly say that there was no one back on earth who she missed at all. Everyone who she loved was here with her. The more Sam spoke about the Guthries, the more clear it was that he had a hole in his heart at his separation from them. Jubilee didn’t have much she could say to him on the topic but he seemed to enjoy having someone to talk to on the subject. When he finished, Jubilee kissed him again, this time very softly.

And that was that. The two sat together at dinner. Jubilee noticed Wolverine eyeing Sam very closely. When Feedback later said something to Jubilee that could be interpreted as a polite come-on, she told him that she and Cannonball were an item. In the evening they went for a walk together and held hands. Before bedtime Sam gave her a chaste kiss on the mouth outside of her room. The following morning, he greeted her with a small bouquet of wildflowers from the forest.

***

Wolverine had been enjoying a walk in the forest when he heard footsteps. He silently cursed. It was more difficult than he would like to get a minute alone and he had not wanted company. His sour mood shifted somewhat, though, when he recognized the other person’s unwieldy gait. It was Heather. He stopped walking so that she would catch up with him.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw him. “Logan!” she greeted. “I didn’t expect to run into anyone in here. How are you?”

He gave a grunt in reply. He wasn’t in the mood for niceties.

“Hmmm,” Heather replied. “My day isn’t going that much better. Care to talk about it or would you rather not?”

“No thanks, Heather,” Wolverine responded.

She was actually surprised to get three entire words from him. She truly did not know the cause of Wolverine’s foul mood either. Although word traveled fast in Haven, neither Wolverine nor Storm had told anyone else of their quarrel and Cannonball was not the type to gossip. He had told no one. If anyone had noticed Wolverine and Storm avoiding each other, no one had commented upon it. However the two never had been joined at the hip as some of the other couples were, hence a rift between them would be less apparent.

“Well, I am sorry to hear you’re not in a good mood”. She shook her head. “I look around Haven and cannot believe how gorgeous this place is; it almost seems impossible to not be happy here. But maybe my problems are of the type that will follow me anywhere. Of course it doesn’t help when my back aches, my ankles are swollen, and I don’t have my mother or anyone else here to teach me how to be a parent”. She silently added that she didn’t expect much help from her husband either.

“You’ll figure it out. You always were a smart woman”.

“Why thank you, Logan. You’ve always expressed such faith in me, whether I deserve it or not”.

Wolverine’s ears perked up again and he heard more footsteps. “James,” he said quietly.

Heather’s eyes widened again. Wolverine took a quick whiff of her scent and sensed that she hadn’t wanted to run into her husband.

“There you are,” James called, when he saw his wife. “Puck told me he’d thought you went into the for ““ He abruptly stopped. “Wolverine,” he said flatly when the other man came into his view.

James strode up to Heather and grasped her arm. “I can’t leave you alone for ten minutes and you go off with the man who always had a crush on you!”

“I didn’t even know he was here,” Heather said. “And we were just talking! Relax, James. I doubt anyone would want to ravish me when I’m eight months pregnant anyway. Lord knows you haven’t laid a finger on me in ages”.

“Don’t you talk like that!” he warned, his voice aggressive and his grip on her arm tightening.

Wolverine strode up to James. “Let her go! Ain’t no way to treat a lady”.

James dropped his grip on Heather. “I suppose you think you could treat her better,” he snarled.

“That’s enough!” Heather cried. “Both of you. Let’s not get into a fight. There’s enough strife back on earth, we don’t need to recreate it here. FOH wants us all dead - we shouldn’t be fighting with each other!” Her voice turned tender and she held her hand out to her husband. “James, you have nothing to be jealous of. Come on, walk with me back out of here”.

James’ tone somehow turned around quickly and now mirrored his wife’s. “With pleasure”.

They turned and walked away without a word to Wolverine, leaving him with the solitude he craved.

When Wolverine left the forest, however, he had a second encounter with a pregnant redhead whom he had once loved but couldn’t have.

“Hi, Wolverine,” Jean said. She was standing on the path facing him.

He realized that it was something of a surprise to see Jean alone. She normally spent as much time as she could with her husband. He took another look at her face and saw a purposeful expression. Jean had a mission, Wolverine surmised.

“Hi,” he said.

She fell into step next to him. “Did you have a nice walk through the woods?”

He was tempted to answer ‘no’ but stopped himself. “Out with it, Red,” he said instead. “You know I ain’t one for small talk”.

“Alright,” Jean smiled. “I understand that”. She stopped walking and faced Wolverine straight on. “You and Storm are the two most stubborn people I know. And neither one of you likes to open up much either. So I knew, as soon as you two got together, that you two would have a hard time of it when you came to have disagreements. All couples have them sometime, but I knew that neither one of you would want to talk it out or admit that you missed the other or admit that you might have been wrong. I don’t know what your disagreement is about but I can tell that something is wrong between the two of you. So I’m asking you to fix it. Being stubborn and not admitting that you miss your lover doesn’t get you anywhere, except miserable”.

“Thanks for the lecture,” Wolverine grumbled.

“Lecture or not, it is true. One thing I know how to do is be in a happy relationship for years and I can tell you that it sometimes means being uncomfortable and opening up more than you want to, and it sometimes even means eating a bit of crow too even if you still think that you were the one who was right”.

“You give Storm the same lecture?”

“More or less. So please go talk to her. I’ll give whichever one of you approaches the other first a prize. I don’t know what the prize will be, but I’ll think of something. I’ll take one of your bridge duty shifts if we ever get back into space”.

Wolverine shrugged. “You’re on. Except I didn’t hate bridge duty as much as everyone else. It was nice to be alone for a few hours”. He paused. “I’ll talk to her”.

“Thank you”.

***

Storm reached Wolverine first. They wordlessly walked to her room. She silently rehearsed two speeches inside of her head.

The first one contained her deepest thoughts and fears:

‘Sometimes I don’t like who I am when I am with you. I become jealous of other women. I sometimes feel upset at comments you make. I cannot abide by this out-of-control feeling, especially when I am of the sort who prefer their emotions to be under control at all times. Yet at the same time, I also love the wild feeling I have when I’m with you - and I’m not talking only about what occurs in the bedroom. Sometimes being with you feels so freeing’.

The second one was the far less revealing and more measured speech:

‘Perhaps I misinterpreted what you said. I know that you believe you only have Jubilee’s best interests at heart. Perhaps you can assure me that you understand that she is not our possession and then I can feel better about our disagreement’.

Storm continued to silently debate which of the two speeches to share with Wolverine. One made her feel absolutely naked and vulnerable. But the second one, she feared, was not as authentic.

They reached her room, and she sat down on the bed. Wolverine sat across from her on the chair. She eyed him, thinking for a second he had made a motion as if he wanted to kiss or caress her, but that the gesture had been aborted.

`To hell with it all,’ Storm said to herself. `I’ll throw caution to the wind and tell him the first version. If it scares him off then we can be done with this entire affair and only my pride will suffer temporarily, though at least I don’t have to fear him gossiping about the situation. And then I will not have to worry about ever falling for someone again’.

“Logan,” Storm began, “I have something to tell you.” She took a breath. “Sometimes I don’t like who I am when I am with you. I sometimes become jealous of other women. I sometimes feel upset at comments you make. This feeling of being out-of-control is very difficult, especially when I am of the sort who prefer their emotions to be under wraps at all times. Yet at the same time, I also love the wild feeling I have when I’m with you. Sometimes being with you feels so freeing”.

Logan’s eyes were wide as he listened to Storm pour out her emotions. “Wow, ‘Ro. I think that’s the most I ever heard you talk about how you feel or admit that sometimes you have trouble with things”.

Ororo forced herself to shrug. “Well, I felt it could not hurt to share with you what is going on inside my mind. Though I realize it may have been too much”.

“No. No, it ain’t. I like it when a woman opens up and lets me in. I kinda wondered about some of that stuff you mentioned. Wondered how you felt”.

Ororo nodded and waited for more of a response from Logan.

“I don’t feel the same way,” he said.

She struggled to keep her face neutral. ‘So that is that,’ she said to herself. ‘He simply does not care for me that much’.

“I mean,” Logan continued, “that I don’t dislike the way I feel when I’m with you. I like the way you make me feel. I get that outta control feelin’ but you know me, it doesn’t bother me. I like bein’ with you”.

“Ah,” Ororo managed. “I see. I mean, I am flattered that you enjoy being with me”.

“So maybe we can cut the fights over little things. Or not let ‘em bother us so much since there’ll always be disagreements”.

“That is certainly wise”.

“I get overprotective of the women I love,” Logan admitted. “But that don’t mean that I think I own them”.

With that, he lunged forward and pulled her into a rough kiss. It took Ororo off guard at first. She then released herself and fell into the kiss, as she both enjoyed and feared the wild rush of sensations coursing through her body.

***

So the days slowly passed. When I could tear myself away from Jean Paul and see what was going on, it looked like us X-men and Alpha Flight were getting along ok. The two teams worked together in the Danger Room and also played sports together. Jean Paul was telling me that there was a little bit of misunderstanding when X-men and Alpha Flight tried to play football against each other since the Canadian rules are different. They worked it out okay in the end, I’m told, though not without James getting pissed. Alpha Flight also introduced to the X-men a game that they sometimes played, “Extreme Volleyball”, which involved a wider net and the ball never being considered out of bounds. I didn’t play either game, of course, though I did watch one of the Extreme Volleyball games. “No powers” was a rule during sports like these, and Alpha Flight actually won the game I watched.

We also found that both of our teams scored the game of Scrabble differently, but we worked that one out peacefully too.

Other than the incident between Rogue and Radius (I can’t believe the guy, hitting on Rogue! How stupid do you have to be?), it looked like the two teams coexisted decently. Jean Paul told me that Alpha Flight was really enjoying the planet, though James was often grumpy despite the great surroundings and Aurora had her own emotional issues to deal with. Jean Paul had to spend a lot of time with his sister since you never knew how her mental illness would be on a given day or what condition she’d be in. Aurora was more or less friendly but distant towards me. I wondered if she might someday lash out at me for taking her brother away or something like that, but I didn’t worry too much.

And then suddenly, one night, I was back at the FOH headquarters, a prisoner in one of their cells again. Guards were coming to get me, smothering me. Then I was trying to escape, running down an endless hallway, but unable to find the X-men. The soldiers were chasing after me and catching up to me with each passing second, and no matter how fast I moved, I couldn’t locate the other X-men. I woke up just as the soldiers were slapping a collar on me.

I must have kicked Jean Paul or maybe he woke up due to the tangled mess I’d made with the blankets. I was sweating and my heart was still racing. It was the first nightmare I’d had since Alpha Flight landed.

And I didn’t want Jean Paul to see me like this. He reacted the way I knew he’d react as soon as he woke up and figured out what had happened. He gently encircled me with his arms, he called me “mon cher” and whispered soothing words to me. I could not ask for anything more, but I felt like an idiot too.

“I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just a nightmare. It’s over with”.

“It must have been very intense,” he said. Our room was mostly dark but I saw him take a look at the blankets which were scattered all over the place.

“No, I’m fine now, really”.

“What happened in the nightmare? Is it one you have often?”

I’m of the mindset that honesty is the best policy. So I told him. “I’ve had a few nightmares since we escaped from FOH. That’s what my nightmare is about “ the time we were prisoners. It’s like I’m running down the hallway with the soldiers on my tail and I can’t find the other X-men. Do you ever have nightmares about that, the time you were prisoners of FOH?”

“No. I think somehow I have the whole terrible time erased from my memory. All I tend to remember is the moment that Walter and I rushed the door and got us out of there. I think my brain has forced itself to forget the days we sat in that cell and listened to them taunt us”. He paused and gently caressed my arm. “You are still shaking. You poor thing. This really bothers you”.

“I guess there’s no hiding it. I’m a coward, Jean Paul. That’s why I’m shaking, why I still have nightmares about something that happened months ago. You want to make me into a fighter, but I’m just a chicken. I bet the other X-men are like you “ they never even think about when we were FOH prisoners”.

“None of the other X-men got beaten up by FOH as you did. None of them rescued the whole team either”. His voice was passionate and forceful as he said the words. “You are not a coward”.

I still clung to Jean Paul but avoided meeting his eyes. I didn’t want to keep insisting that I was a wimp but I also thought it might be wise if he saw the real me early on. I didn’t know what to say.

“You are progressing well in the Danger Room,” he added. “Very well, in fact”.

“Yeah? Well yesterday I was scared shitless before the simulation began. And during it, and, hell, after it too!”

“Everyone gets afraid, Bobby. You just need more experience”. He stroked my back gently as he spoke. “I am certain that you are not the only one who has nightmares sometimes. Being captured by FOH was….was too horrible for any words to describe. Everyone has their own way of coping with the terrible memories”.

I pulled out of our embrace slightly so I could look at him. “You really think I’m not a coward, even though I’m having nightmares? Are you sure? Because I want you to see what I’m like, what the real me is like”.

“I see it. I like what I see. You are sensitive and caring “ maybe I can learn from you how to be more that way”.

“I’d rather be like you. Strong and brave”.

Jean Paul resumed stroking my back. “Thank you, mon pote”.

He kept touching and consoling me until I fell asleep again. I heard him repeatedly murmur something in French. This time I slept peacefully though all my old insecurities remained as well.

The next morning, I asked him what he’d said to me in French. He repeated the phrase: “je ne te quitte pas”. He then explained, “It means that I shall never leave you”.

My heart thumped intently. “Thank you,” I whispered.

***

Hank strolled along the lake, enjoying the morning’s fresh air and beautiful views. He saw Jean and Cyclops, walking hand in hand, approach from the other direction. They greeted each other, and Scott then said, “Care to join us for our walk, Hank? Unless, of course, you wanted solitude”.

“I would enjoy nothing more than your company,” Hank responded.

Jean smiled at her husband as Hank fell into step with them. “After all, he’s not Wolverine. Hank *likes* being around other people,” she said.

They shared a giggle over the slight dig at Wolverine’s tendency to go off alone, though Scott added, “I think he’s doing a lot better here than I would’ve thought”.

Hank then commented, “I am still awed at the natural beauty of our surroundings. I find myself sincerely hoping that we do not begin to take it for granted”.

“Me too,” Jean said. “Though it was neat seeing Alpha Flight’s reactions when they first landed. It made me think back to the wonder we felt when we first got here”.

“The longer we stay, though, the more likely we are to forget what it was like back on earth and to take this place for granted,” Cyclops added. Although his visor still did not allow him to see all of Haven’s splendor, he still could use his other senses to appreciate the feel of a breeze or the wetness of the water when they went swimming.

“Do you have any sense from Alpha Flight as to whether they might share the planet’s power source?” Hank asked, keeping his voice low. He heard voices in the distance.

“Storm and I talked about it yesterday and we don’t want to push it. Alpha Flight hasn’t brought it up either”.

“There’s still a ways to go before Heather has the baby,” Jean added. “I don’t think we should rush asking them about it”. She paused. “I also don’t think we should hold our breaths. James is not going to wake up one day and be filled with joy that he’s a father and in his great mood decide to share the power source with us. I just can’t see it happening”.

“Perhaps as our teams continue to get along well “ with the noted exception of Radius and Rogue “ that may at least inspire some goodwill towards us,” Hank observed. He then added, “From what I have heard, it appears that there is no lingering resentment between Rogue and Radius, which I’m certain is a positive”.

“I heard that Gambit had a little talk with him afterwards,” Cyclops added. “I also hear that he kept it respectful”.

“Gambit has matured well,” Jean chimed in.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hank saw the source of the voices he had heard a moment earlier. Bobby and Northstar had been on a canoe ride and their canoe was now reaching the shore. Hank, along with Jean and Scott, paused to watch them for a moment. The lake had no dock, so when people ended their canoe trips they had to paddle as close to the shore as possible and then get their shoes wet as they exited the boat. This morning however, Northstar hopped out of the canoe and dragged it onto the grass so that Bobby could exit on dry ground. He reached a hand up to steady Bobby as he got out. The couple waved hello to Scott, Jean, and Hank before going on their way.

Hank turned back to Scott and Jean. He did not typically talk about someone who was not in the conversation and was not about to begin doing so now. However he wondered if Jean had read some of his thoughts when she asked, “You don’t spend as much time with Bobby now as you used to, do you?”

Hank shrugged. “I suppose it is natural for someone falling in love to spend less time with their friends”.

One could see Scott’s eyebrows raise over the top of his glasses. “Wow, Hank, you sounded so sad when you said that just now”.

“I am fine. I do miss spending time with Bobby “ he always brings a sense of merriment and he possesses a very sweet temperament. Perhaps if I, too, were falling in love then I would have less time to devote to friendships as well”.

“Maybe you ought to talk to him though,” Jean suggested. “He’s never had a relationship before and maybe someone needs to gently remind him not to neglect his friends. Every now and then Bobby needs a little reminder on this type of thing”.

Hank shrugged. “I do not see his behavior as out of line, however. When Rogue and Gambit were first beginning a relationship, the rest of us did not see them too often either”.

Hank silently added that when he had fallen for Carly years ago, she had been first and foremost on his mind for a long time. A few years after her operation, Carly had gotten married. She had sent Hank an invitation to the wedding, but he declined it. He had never mentioned that to any of the others.

“At least this relationship has gotten Bobby back in the Danger Room. I hope he will be okay when Alpha Flight leaves though,” Scott said.

Jean looked at her husband. “I hadn’t thought of that. Do you think Bobby will leave us and go with them? Or would Northstar stay with us?”

“I don’t know. And I wonder if there’s some way that Northstar can intercede and help us get some of the power supply”. Scott paused. “But one thing at a time. Like you said, we have a ways to go before Heather even has the baby, and I’m sure they’re not going to leave right after that. No sense in trying to do anything now “ who knows what could happen in the next several weeks and months”.

“You’re right. As great as Haven is, it’s just hard to get used to the long days of no action here after all the excitement we had on earth”.

Scott nodded, though he wondered at Jean’s choice of wording. `Excitement’ seemed a mild way to describe much of the battle and angst the team had endured over the years.

“James’ disposition sure hasn’t seemed to improve much since landing here,” he muttered quietly. Then, in a more upbeat tone, Scott began, “But anyway, since we’re talking about relationships -- not that I am one for gossiping -- but I just want to make sure Jubilee is okay. She seemed fine at dinner yesterday”.

“I think she and Sam are happy,” Jean said. “I’m not going to worry. He’s a very sweet guy. Even Wolverine seems okay with them dating”.

“Good”.

“I am glad to hear that as well,” Hank added. “It is hard to think of our little girl as having grown up, but at this point she must be considered an adult”.

***

Rogue picked Gambit up and flew them through Haven’s skies. Boredom was their main motivation for that afternoon’s swift ride around the planet. Gambit enjoyed being flown around occasionally.

When their joyride was finished, Rogue set them down in the forest and they walked, hand in hand.

“Jean is really startin’ to show,” Rogue observed. “Won’t be long before she’s as big as Heather”.

Gambit nodded. Rogue continued on, “What do you think with all these babies on the way? You ever wanna have one of your own?”

“Been t’inkin’ ‘bout it more because of all the babies on the way now,” he admitted. “Mostly I been t’inkin’ dat I want one someday but not now. We still young, Rogue. Got so much time ahead of us”.

“I like the way you think, Cajun. That’s what I been thinking too. Someday maybe have one but not now. ‘Course, I want a weddin’ before any baby”.

Gambit smiled. “Ah, Chere, if we be back on earth I t’row you the biggest and grandest weddin’ you ever seen. I had me a lot of money”.

Rogue squeezed his hand tighter and slowed her pace. “Aww, Gambit, you know I don’t care ‘bout that stuff”.

“I know. And dat’s good ‘cause I t’ink FOH probably broke into my accounts. Dough Remy was real creative ‘bout where he put some of his money and can still get to some of it. He hopes”.

“If you can, that’s swell. But I mean it, Remy, I don’t care if you don’t got any money. And I’d love a big weddin’ someday but I also wouldn’t mind if we get married by a justice of the peace in a courthouse someday. It don’t matter to me”. Rogue paused. “I wonder how Scott and Jean handled that for their wedding, the finances. Jean’s family has some money though they’re not rich like Xavier”.

“I t’ink I hear dat Xavier give them a budget to manage, and Jean’s father kicked in some too. Chere, if you want somet’in’ small den we can do somet’in’ small but don’t you want somet’in’ at leas’ as nice as dey had? You should be the belle of the ball someday”.

“I guess it’d be nice. But for me it ain’t about how elaborate the ceremony is, it’s about what we’ll say to each other, the vows we’ll make”.

“Dat very sweet, chere. You got your heart in the right place like you always do”.

Suddenly the couple felt a strong gust of wind from overhead. They looked up to see Northstar and Bobby flying through the air.

“Looks like dey had the same idea we had,” Gambit observed.

“Yeah,” Rogue muttered, looking down.

“Okay, chere, what is it? Ever since Bobby get together with Northstar, you have dis look where I can tell you don’t like it. You ain’t no homophobe, are you?”

“No, lord no, not at all,” Rogue insisted.

“But somet’in’s botherin’ you ‘bout dis whole situation. Do you not like Northstar? Or you miss seein’ Bobby more often?” Gambit silently added that Bobby sure could be doing a better job of spending time with his friends.

Rogue shook her head. “No. I mean I guess not, though I hardly know Northstar”. She took a breath. “I guess somethin’ does bother me but I ain’t no homophobe. I did grow up where things were pretty traditional though. The times we went to church “ which weren’t all that often “ they did talk ‘bout it bein’ a big sin. I didn’t ever really think ‘bout Bobby bein’…gay ‘till now I guess. Before he was just a nice, sensitive guy who didn’t ever date or anything like that”.

Gambit chuckled at Rogue’s comment. He then added, seriously, “Dough he did do t’ings like dat before. You know he was headin’ out to a gay bar every week or so back home”.

Rogue shrugged. “I kinda put that outta my mind. Figured he was goin’ there for a drink and to be with his own kind for a bit”.

“An’ to find people to have sex with, you can bet. He wasn’t never no celibate”.

Rogue had to stifle a mild shudder, and Gambit caught her movement. “Is it the sex part of it dat you have trouble with?” he asked. If it was, he was surprised given how uninhibited and passionate she was between the sheets.

“Maybe,” Rogue said quietly. “Guess I oughtta put it outta my mind. We ain’t supposed to think ‘bout what our friends do in bed anyway”.

Gambit nodded. “Jus’ t’ink ‘bout how much you like the person. He’s been a good friend to you all dese years, ‘member how he went wit’ you to each an’ every store in New York lookin’ for the right outfit for one of our first dates?”

“I could never forgit that!” Rogue said, sounding more like herself. “Course the date was so good I almost forgot what happened before it”. Rogue then mused about their night on the town, the clubs they had visited, the drinks they shared, the music they had danced to, and the improv troupe whose performance they had enjoyed. Haven was a serene and beautiful place but Rogue was starting to miss the excitement of a big city.

On the other hand, Rogue conjectured, with all the anti-mutant laws, even if she and Gambit were back on earth they would no longer be able to enter any of those nightclubs or theaters now.

As they went on with their walk, Gambit continued to feel surprise at the notion of Rogue being uncomfortable with any type of sexuality. Perhaps it was what she had alluded to earlier, the teachings of her church, that caused the uneasiness. Yet surely the same church had preached against heterosexual sex for those not married? Gambit himself liked the little he had been exposed to of gay culture. He wasn’t attracted to other men, but he envied gay men’s openness about sex and desire, at least based upon what he had observed back in New Orleans. He felt that there was nothing quite like that among heterosexuals, even in New Orleans where attitudes towards sexuality were quite open. Of course strip joints and prostitution had flourished there, as in other places, but Gambit clearly saw that at the root of those arrangements were financial transactions rather than an open and sincere expression of sexuality. When he was being sexual with a woman, it had to be because she wanted *him* and she enjoyed sexuality and sensuality “ not because she needed his money.

As he had these thoughts, Gambit realized that he didn’t feel he could share them with Rogue. He thought that she wouldn’t understand at all, and that idea caused a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

***
TO BE CONTINUED

Reviews are always appreciated.





You must login () to review.