Scott and Jean, Wednesday night

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Scott's bandages are removed, and while this also leads to some amusing byplay on the subject of potential Halloween costumes between him and Jean, it also makes something else a little more real for Scott.


It didn't look as bad as he thought.

That was the thought that kept reoccuring as Scott examined his face in his mirror. Specifically, the injured side of his face, which no longer sported the bandages. Time to take them off, the doctors had decided.

The bruising was still colorful, and that side of his face was still swollen. But the cuts were healing, and even what was under the eyepatch didn't look too bad. There was going to be scarring, though. That much was obvious.

Jean leaned against the doorway, watching him. There were definitely advantages to not needing to ask what he thought. "It really isn't that bad," she said.

"No, it's not." He had seen flashes of what she'd seen that night, in shared dreams, and it had certainly looked like it would be far worse when it had first happened. "At least I have an obvious option for next Halloween..."

Jean smiled, then crossed to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around him. "You'd make a good pirate," she said. "And if you're very good you could probably convince me to go as a wench..."

His eye lit with humor. "Mmm. Cleavage. I'll have to behave myself scrupulously, then."

She giggled, turning her head to kiss his cheek softly. "A better good behavior reward than the usual lollypop, then?"

"Yes, much. Since the lollypops are just Moira's way of screwing with my head." Scott rubbed lightly at the side of his jaw. "Still sore. But it itches now, about as much as it hurts. I suppose that's a good sign."

"A very good sign, yes, but it does mean you have to be much more careful about not fussing with it. No. Scratching."

He gave her a very meek look. "Me? Scratch?" he said.

"Yes, you. Honestly, am tempted to just wrap your hands in a tk shield so you can't."

"It's very hard not to scratch," Scott said woefully, and then realized something. One eye or not, he could actually, for the first time ever, manage an honest-to-goodness puppy-dog look. So he tried it.

"Ooooh..." Jean's arms tightened protectively around him, holding him close. "Scott, that's cheating..."

It took everything he had not to burst out laughing. Not at her, really, but at the whole situation. Turning without really pulling away, he wrapped his arms around her in turn and kissed her soundly.

"Have I mentioned how much I love you lately?"

"I think it may have come up a few times, yes. And I love you too, so much. Even when you do pout at me to get your way." Smiling, Jean kissed him again.

"You've been too tolerant, really," Scott said, keeping an arm around her and drawing her towards the bed. "I've been such a pain in the ass the last week or so. Boredom does not sit well with me."

"I have known that for a very long time, love. You were dangerously creative when things actually got quiet enough for you to be bored when we were younger."

Scott sat down, wincing a little as he turned his head a bit too far in the wrong direction. His neck was still bothering him from time to time. "It's just been so strange. I have all these hours that need filling up and not enough to do it with."

"I know," Jean said, settling next to him, "but for all of that, I think you've been doing very well. I mean, yes, you fuss, but you've been remarkably lowkey about it."

"Entirely too much going on for me to indulge myself by making a fuss," Scott pointed out wryly. "Besides, it's part of the whole headmaster and team leader thing. You need to appear to be with it even when you're not."

"Entirely too responsible for your own good," she told him, but she smiled as she said it. After all, that was just how Scott was, and one of many reasons why she loved him.

Scott leaned back against the pillows, letting the air in his lungs out on a sigh. He was feeling much better, almost incalculably better, but he still wore out too easily. His eye wasn't using to doing the work of two, and the headaches were almost constant.

"We haven't talked about Christmas yet," he said.

"Hmmm, you're right," Jean said, thinking about it. Carefully she ran her hands through his hair - it needed a trim, now that the bandages were off. Evening up from what had had to be cut for surgery.

"I know Phillip and Deborah would like to see us. I imagine your parents would too. Maybe visit them, then go north?"

Jean nodded. "That sounds good to me. I can call my mom, see when would be good..."

Scott's lips twitched a bit, the smile oddly sad. "Not looking forward to Alaska as much as I should be."

Jean frowned, wrapping her arms around him again. "Why not? Anything I can do?"

"When I was up there last year I flew for Phillip."

"Ahhhh." Jean nodded, then pressed a kiss to his shoulder before leaning against him properly. "We still haven't talked about that."

"It seems like such a... minor thing to be obsessing over," Scott said with a sigh. "I can still see. I have control... well, will be getting control over my blasts for the first time in my life. And yet I can't stop sneaking down to the hangar to stare at the 'Bird."

"It would be going quite a ways to say that flying was your life, or even your only joy, but it's hardly a minor thing. You love flying and now... we don't know. You may never fly again..."

"I keep dreaming about it," he said quietly. "Flying, I mean. I always knew I had obsessive-compulsive tendencies but this is ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous," Jean argued. "I won't even point out that most people have flying dreams, and that at least you have the good sense to dream about having a plane, too."

Scott subsided into a fitful silence, telling himself that poking at it, however figuratively, wasn't really going to improve things. He'd just have to work on getting accustomed to the idea. It wasn't as if Santa was going to bring him a new eye this Christmas.

"No, he won't," Jean said, answering the thought, "but we'll just have to see how things end up in general. And, in the meantime, we have Christmas plans to make."