Jean and Scott

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

After getting away from the school, Jean and Scott drop Manuel and Dani off at the library and then go for a walk.



Jean breathed in deeply, enjoying the fresh, spring air as much as the mental rest of regular people having regular thoughts. She caught snatches of a woman planning her shopping list, and a pair of small children racing about, both convinced they were 'it' and would catch the other soon. And, of course, there was always the reassuring mental presence of Scott, walking along side her. "Thank you again, by the way," she said. "It gets to the point where your surrounded by all of that, every day, and you forget that you can actually leave it, that there are places past the school walls that are entirely different."

"You're welcome," Scott murmured, then shrugged a little. "I figured it was more productive to throw the three of you in the car and get you somewhere less psionically cluttered. We've had the merry-go-round, double-standard 'suck it up' discussion before." He smiled a little, looking sideways at her. "I very often think that Manuel has a point."

"Yes, he has, I can't argue with that. However, anyone who attempted to put his point into action, them I can argue with." Jean laughed slightly. "But I think I shall just think of it as yet another reason to get my shields back up to strength - to not need to go on the rescue outings."

"Want a hot dog?" Scott asked, then caught himself smiling again, a bit oddly, as he thought of that day he'd spent wandering the city, back in October.

Jean caught a flash of that and cocked an eyebrow. "I wouldn't say no to a pretzel, I think, but what happened in October? You were... lost?"

Scott opened his mouth, then closed it again, realizing with mild amazement that he hadn't told her about that. "Alex and I ran into some problems coming back from seeing his college, in Hawaii," he said, and then switched to the link for the rest. #Some of Stryker's leftovers,# he went on, flashing the images at her. #They drugged me with that serum again and I wound up wandering New York for a solid twenty-four hours without any idea who I was.#

"Oh," Jean said slowly, reaching out to catch his hand and press it. "Did... did the serum wear off or...?" Last time it had been her presence that had given him the impetus to break the conditioning, her presence and the shock of her fighting back his powers.

"It did," Scott said. "I started to hear Charles, later on in the day. By the time the team got there it was starting to come back..." He smiled again. "You know, afterwards, it actually helped. That's when things started to turn around for me this fall. Gave me a little perspective, I suppose."

"Perspective, always good. Can we teach a course next year on perspective and looking at the bigger picture?" She smiled at him. "I'm glad it helped, although I am most decidedly not glad that it happened." #Do we know if any more of Stryker's people are still operating. And if so, can we destroy them, painfully?#

#It's an open file,# he said a bit regretfully, then went on aloud. "Don't think it's really something that can be taught, do you? You have to earn it yourself or it doesn't really do much good." His smile turned a bit lop-sided. "I feel a bit delinquent, sneaking out today, you know."

"I think the problem is that they're all coming from such different places that what would be perspective to, say, Forge, would mean nothing to Jay, and what would be helpful for Jay would not help Kyle, and that's just sticking to one suite. Still, we could teach... hm... well, call it critical thought. Which is a subset of philosophy, so perhaps Lorna would want to do it? Too many of them have trouble analyzing their own thoughts, opinions and feelings in any coherent way. And you're not delinquent," she added as an after thought. "We're chaperoning a mental health field trip. We're just chaperoning from rather farther away than usual." Manuel and Dani had been doing just fine with their studying, so Jean and Scott had decided a walk was called for.

"Remedial thinking," Scott murmured, then laughed. "Still. Those in glass houses and all." He stopped at the next booth, paying for two pretzels - that sounded better than a hot dog just now - and handed one to Jean. "We'll all muddle through," he said as they started to walk again. "I did speak to Jay this morning before we left."

"Yes, but calling it critical thought sounds so much nicer." Accepting the pretzel with a nod of thanks she went on, "Yes, I saw you had invited him for a discussion, and that he had stopped responding to things so I assumed he'd gone to see you. And I admit, I probably should have stopped as well but... Forge is very interested in legislation and changing the world through the system and if he wants to deal with adults in adult forums he is going to need to learn to handle discussion better."

"He's made a lot of progress on the people-skills level since he got here," Scott said thoughtfully. "Steady progress, too. Forge responds well to straightforward talk, from what I've seen, and he's willing to examine his own reactions, which is the important thing."

"Yes, he has a good head on his shoulders, I admit. Perhaps a bit too straight forward, but that's not really a flaw." Jean peered into the window of the bookshop they were passing, idly examining the stuff on display.

"Subtlety comes with age. But the ability to... put yourself out there is less easily learned. Forge and those like him have an edge on the other kids." That provoked a sigh, though, as it led immediately to thoughts of Paige. "Of course, there are pitfalls to that, too."

"I know I don't have all, or even most, of the details, but I have faith in you, Scott. You want what's best for these kids, even when they don't see it." And that was always the difficulty with teaching and being responsible for children - what they wanted for themselves and what you wanted for them and what they needed were so often vastly different things.

"I feel... cold, sometimes," Scott said, surprising himself. This wasn't the sort of thing he discussed openly, even with Charles. "Like with Jay, this morning. I wonder sometimes if I take too much of a 'fix the problem' approach, although I suppose that's as much the engineer in me as anything else."

"Mmmm," Jean said, thinking it over. "I think it's just a different way of approaching problems, really. I wouldn't call it cold - you certainly care very much, otherwise you wouldn't try to help in the first place."

"I wonder sometimes what some of our hardcases would think if they knew just how similar parts of my background are to theirs," Scott said with a wry smile. "Every so often I have the urge to share bits and pieces, just to shock them."

"I suspect it would definitely be a bit of a surprise. They do tend to look at us as though we sprung forth, fully grown from Charles' mind to take up positions here as their teachers. I can't even imagine what they would think if they knew what you went through, or about Ororo's past." She shook her head. "In some cases, I don't know that it might not help."

"I do wonder. I mean, compare yours and Hank's background to mine and Ororo's... and yet we wound up in the same place, believing in the same things. Some of the kids could do to have concrete proof that having a shitty childhood or a wonderful childhood doesn't have to impact what you want to do with the rest of your life any more than you let it."

"Between the four of us we do rather have a range of experiences, don't we? It might also be a good lesson that, regardless of the hand you were dealt, it is possible to get what you want. I know Danielle, for instance, is still having a lot of trouble with that idea."

Scott tore off another piece of his pretzel, chewed and swallowed before he went on. "There's a lot of range in the experiences of all the staff," he mused. "You have people from loving families, people who were stolen and brainwashed as children, and everything in between. But," he said wryly, "those of us who have darker stories to tell would just get accused of doing the 'when I was your age' act, or worse, trying to minimize what they're going through."

"Aren't children fun?" Jean asked. "I love them dearly but... well, they're children. The world is all about them."

"To some extent it's a good thing, that they feel free to be their obnoxious little selves," Scott said with a chuckle. "I'd rather that than see them afraid to come out of their shells." Like he'd been, at first. "It strikes me sometimes that it means they do appreciate what the school is for them. Even if they choose odd ways to show it."

"Odd, odd ways," she agreed. Glancing down at the pretzel in her hand she realized there was only one bite left, although she was uncertain where the rest of it had gone - perhaps she had been hungrier than she thought. Bug she finished it off and tossed the napkin into a trash can. "I think, when they're sitting down to think about it, they do see more of what they have and understand it better, than when they're giving in to the rush of emotions. But then, that's true of adults as well."

"Just a question of the speed of the process," Scott said. "Sometimes. There's really nothing hard and fast about any of this, is there?" He finished his pretzel and tossed the napkin into the same trash can.

"People and emotions and rushing never go well together, in my experience. Which is just one of the frustrations of life we have to deal with, I'm afraid." Jean glanced at her watch, wrinkling her nose. "We should probably head back to the library, though. By now they've probably either finished their work and started plotting something or run into a problem with which a teacher could be useful."

"Our two sweet and innocent young psis? Plotting?"

Jean grinned. "Good point. Perhaps we should head back fast."