Madelyn, Jubilee - Thursday evening

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Madelyn comes across Jubilee in the gym, and things are awkward, given their last exchange about the trip to visit Hank's parents. But sometimes all there needs to be for a bridge to be built is for someone to reach out. And someone to take the hand offered. Ends with theraputic violence.



Jubilee placed the earbud headphones in her ears and squared off against the punching bag, leveling a quick front kick at mid level to make sure she was in the right position. She was tired, but she needed to get some practice in before she went to bed. Besides, an empty room wasn't a particularly inviting place, and with Paige still down in Medlab, it was likely to stay that way for at least a little while longer.

Which reminded her that she seriously needed to visit Paige, tomorrow morning maybe. She could take Georgina down with her.

She'd been pulling more shifts than before in the medlab, and was likely to for a while, which made her gym time all the more precious. When Madelyn saw Jubilee was already in there, she was tempted to leave the girl to her training, but dammit, whatever Jubilee's issues were with her and Hank, Madelyn wasn't about to have her chasing her out of places. She'd put the ball firmly in Jubilee's court with that last email, time for the girl to show whether she was in fact growing up, or whether she was a brat.

And after going through the worst of Carlie's adolescence, Madelyn had little patience with brats. So she strolled in and started stretching out, eyeing off the weight machines. Set for Haroun, as usual, but once she took the ridiculous amounts of weight off, they'd do until the bag was free... She'd already noted the earbuds, so she didn't bother calling out, just waved in Jubilee's general direction and went about things.

Jubilee noticed Madelyn's entrance, and aimed a punch at the bag, thinking about whether she should say anything. She had been a brat in her response to Madelyn on the journals, but two of the people she was supposedly close to hadn't even bothered to find out why she hadn't responded to a post about going to see Hank's folks.

It wasn't till just yesterday that she'd realised how shockingly she'd been neglecting her own friends, and training wasn't really an excuse.

Madelyn noticed the harder punch, and sighed to herself. Still angry at her. And with those damn earbuds in, it wasn't like she could actually talk to Jubilee without it being a production. Which would be what she'd do normally, just start talking as if to herself. She knew Jubilee had been working hard on her training, but it stung to know she'd been outgrown. Not team, therefore not counting. Plopping herself on the floor, she began stretching out her legs, trying to figure out a way to sort this out. Or if she wanted to.

Jubilee took the earbuds out of her ears and turned around. Screw this, she wasn't about to let a friendship end simply to win 'Emo kid of the year' award. She just had no idea how to start this conversation, or what to say and fuck she hated how awkward things felt lately when she was around people. It was like starting all over again, trying to be something more then what she'd been but somehow less because at least the kid she'd been had known how to _talk_ to people. "Mads?" she asked, hand scrunching at her trackpants before she realised what she was doing and stopped it.

Well, that was a start. "Hey, firecracker," Madelyn replied, looking up from her stretch with a half-smile. She looked tired, she knew, but that's what you go when you were one doctor down, and the other was on half-shifts because he had a young baby to care for. "X-Men training again?" she asked, taking pity on the girl - she didn't look mad now, more nervous.
ladybernadette: "Yeah. Thought I'd get some in while the bag was free. Gets a bit hectic in here during the day. How's the whole doctor thing goin'? With Moira bein' missin' in action an all." Jubilee replied, relaxing slightly.

Small talk, she could do that, it was talking, and talking was good. It meant that there could eventually be conversation, and that meant there might be discussion of 'issues'.

"Busy. Less so now Paige is on the mend, but now we're another doctor down, it means Jean and I are taking on more of the work. Hank does what he can, but with Billy, there are limits. He's still on four-hourly feeds, and even Hank needs sleep sometimes." Okay, perhaps a bit less than subtle, but it had bothered her, the implication that she was deliberately neglecting Jubilee when in fact she'd been working her ass off. "I've been wondering if maybe I missed you coming around for that talk, actually. I've been in the medlab so much lately."

"Yeah, I figured when he didn't show up for the stuff he'd promised to do with me that he might've just needed the extra sleep, or that Billy needed attention or somethin'. Figured I could always see him later, right? Only then I got busy and I didn't think to poke him about it." Jubilee explained, feeling somewhat like a jerk for being jealous of a baby.

Babies took a lot of work, she knew that. You couldn't just tell them that you'd see them later like you could with a teenager...like her. They didn't understand 'later'.

"It's very likely. Either that or X-Men stuff - there was a mission that needed him and Forge recently... Wait, you were there. The machine for that girl you helped? Didn't build itself." Madelyn stopped her stretching and nodded at the floor. "Have a seat, kiddo. I think there's some things we need to talk about, and there's no time like the present."

Jubilee sighed and lowered herself onto the floor, taking up a classic meditation pose almost without thinking. She hadn't much thought about how that machine had gotten built. Guess she knew where Hank had been now, as well as Forge.

"I'm not going to lecture you on how busy we are and our responsibilities and everything," Madelyn began, smiling a little at the sigh. It sounded very much like a 'oh no, here we go with where I suck again' sigh to her. "You're a smart girl, and when you think about it, you'll realise it. What I will say is that I'm sorry. Hank and I have been insanely busy lately, and so have you, but that's no excuse to let things go. When you didn't reply to Hank's post about going to the farm, we both kind of assumed you were too busy with training to go, but we should have checked. So, I'm sorry."

Jubilee nodded, a small smile of her own flickering briefly before she spoke. "I'm sorry too. It's not just you guys that I've been not talkin' to lately, it's everyone. I want to do well at this X-men thing, you know? I want to prove I can be just as good as any of the other X-men, that it wasn't a mistake to let me try. Only, now I'm losin' touch with anyone who isn't team and it _sucks_. Just not sure how to say that to people, ya know? Tell 'em I want to hang out, or just see more of people an not feel so distant. How do you tell people that without seemin' like 'emo kid of the year'? An then, well, no one ever tried to come talk to me, ya know? Not like I was waitin' for them too but just that I noticed it. Like I wasn't even missed, an that made me feel like maybe I wasn't."

"Jubilee, I understand the wanting to do well, especially given how hard you had to try and become a trainee. But you have to remember what you're doing it for. Who you're doing it for." Madelyn reached over and patted Jubilee's knee briefly. "As for other people... something you have to remember, hon. It's not always about us. People get caught up with their own stuff, their own dramas, and don't tend to notice anyone else sometimes unless they're out and out imploding in front of them. Like Paige - how long did she quietly go insane before any of us noticed anything? And by the time we did, she was at the stage where she didn't want any help. You want people to talk to you, firecracker, most of the time you have to make the first move."

"Yeah, I'm seein' that now. Sorry I was such a bitch before on the journals, you didn't deserve all the passive aggressive crap I was givin' out. Been tryin' not to do that, ya know? Think maybe if I just made a general journal announcement of 'Please, people, come kidnap me to a carribian Island somewhere?' that'd be a good start?" Jubilee asked, grinning more openly now.

She'd almost forgotten how easy it was to talk to Madelyn, the way it always seemed with the best of friends, that you could just talk and not worry too much about what or why, just words and good company and a feeling of rightness to it all.

"It couldn't hurt. Or maybe arranging something with your suitemates? Paige should be up and about soon, perhaps you could all go out to celebrate. I think she'd like that, a sign her friends still are there for her." Madelyn hadn't been eavesdropping, but voices did carry in the medlab sometimes, and she'd been spending a lot of time down there. "Speaking of people thinking people don't care. Sometimes actions speak louder than journal posts. Just... no donuts again? Or anything else that involved inflammable cooking supplies?" She winked at the last.

Jubilee snickered, remembering the ill fated attempt at cooking donuts. Perhaps actions did speak louder, which meant more time spent talking to her friends, which would mean juggling the training a bit but if the others could do it, she could, right? She just needed to find a balance, that was all. "Yeah. Hey, if you're needin' company on the night shift, I could bring down your dinner a couple of nights, just hang out."

"I'd like that." Madelyn grinned, and then tilted her head at Jubilee speculatively. "So, do you think you could handle sparring with a broken-down old doctor? In the name of making up for lost time, of course."

"Oh, I think I could hack it. Wouldn't make the mistake of thinkin' you're a push over though, Mads. Haroun's been showin' me just how little I know about hand ta hand lately. Kinda liberating, really. Just, don't tell him I said any of that." Jubilee replied, getting to her feet.

Madelyn held out her hand to be helped up, and as Jubilee hauled her to her feet, she gave the girl a wicked grin. "I train with him sometimes. He likes to mock my 'secret police' training. But I do all right, for a mere human."