LOG: Not-So-Plain Jane - Old Friends?

[x-wolverine.livejournal.com]

Logan's Don Quixote-esque quest to Find Jean unexpectedly hits paydirt in Central Park. He listens to his instincts, but doesn't follow through. Backdated to Tuesday, March 28th.



Logan had parked Scott's bike back at one of the entrances to Central Park and he was taking a break. New York _stank_, and his nose could use the break. While Central Park was a fairly poor substitute for some real wilderness, it was the closest he was going to come. He was kicking himself for even being this impulsive - no plan and New York only had a million-plus people to have to try to wade through. Finding Jean successfully would be like finding a needle in a haystack. For some reason, his feet took him towards the Central Park Zoo - seeing all the animals caged up fit his present mood like a glove.

Logan wasn't the only one empathizing with the caged animals these days, which Jane knew was silly - it was Jean locked up now, she was free. She was leaning against the protective bar outside one of the cages, staring into the cage but not seeing it. Damn it. Damn it all. Damn him to hell.

Logan let himself wander the zoo aimlessly, finally ending up in the Big Cats section of the zoo. Tigers, lions, jaguars, that sort of thing. He sat down on a bench and just watched them pace from one side of their cages to the other, knowing _precisely_ how they felt. He knew they were bored, frustrated, and confused by their surroundings.

More feelings he could empathize with.

With something approaching a snarl, Jane shoved away from the cage and turned, stalking off. Unseeing, she moved through the little zoo, not wanting to stay here but having no where better to go at the moment.

Lady Luck was truly spreading her legs for him. He caught a sight of red hair in the crowd, but more importantly he caught a scent. A scent he knew well, one that he thought was probably burned into his brain.

Jean.

He worked his way through the crowd, not _precisely_ shoving but not being very accomodating either. He had to know for himself - had to see it, to hear it. From what Scott had said Jean was very much not Jean-like in behavior. He knew as well as any that people changed, but so radical a change so quickly?

Something didn't feel right about that.

For once, Jane wasn't even listening to her surroundings, paying no attention to the people everywhere. Which meant she had no idea someone was coming up behind her. Lost in her own thoughts, she continued through the crowd, just wanting out, just wanting space.

Logan got to within a hand's touch to Jean, but didn't disturb her. Instead, he studied her, taking in her stride, her smell, the thousand of tiny differences that mark one person from another.

Jean had, he could tell, definitely changed. She was more aggressive, looser in her movements. She even smelled different - apparently she'd changed her diet somewhat. Finally, before the crowds could thin out completely, he cleared his throat discreetly.

It wasn't so much the sound, which was fairly faint, as the mental expectation that went with it that finally caught Jane's attention. She turned to see who it was, confused when she didn't recognize the short man standing expectantly behind her. It took less than a second to realize that she should know him, or rather, that Jean should, and then find the appropriate set of memories and oh, hell, this could be very, very bad if she wasn't careful.

"L... Logan?" she asked, knowing better than to try and hide the shock and instead passing it off as surprise that he was there.

Logan stepped up and wrapped Jean up in a hug. "You're ALIVE!" he said, hoisting her into the air and almost breaking her against his own unbreakable skeleton. "Why didn't you call or write?"

For once she didn't flinch away from the contact, needing the advantage it would give her, the knowledge she'd be able to feel out without him knowing. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back, and studied the outer edges of his mind. He'd talked to Scott, was suspicious, of course, and confused, but the joy at Jean's existence was unfeigned and could be used.

"Logan!" she cried into his shoulder. "God, when did you get back? Where have you been? How are you?"

"I'm all right. But lookit you - all back from the dead and all" he said, unabashedly grinning at the woman in his arms. "Lookin' good, Jeannie." he told her. "Lookin' real good." But looks weren't everything, and something was just a tiny bit ... off ... about this entire situation.

"Well, you know, apparently death becomes me," she said. "And getting away from the school seems to have done us both good - you look well."

"Can't complain. Sick of the glowing green shit and the MRI, but yeah. Progress." he said, taking a moment to look her over once more. "So what's this I hear about you and Slim?" he asked her with a smile.

"I left him," Jane said. "It wasn't a healthy relationship and I needed to get out. But what about you? What's this I heard about you and Marie? Did she come back with you?" She had to keep the ball in his court, keep him from prying.

Logan snorted. "She's still up north, hanging with Shaman. They're making good progress getting the crap out of her head one freezing bath at a time." he said. "And you _left him_?" he asked curiously. That wasn't right!

"The way you say that, almost sounds like you think he should have been the one to leave me." She shrugged slightly. "Yes, I did."

Logan shook his head. "Not like you, Jeannie, to just up and leave." he pointed out. "Your call, though." he mused, letting his animal side filter through her scent, her stance, the way she felt, all looking for something out-of-place, something wrong. "So what are you up to down here in Central Park? Don't strike me as much of the zoo sort."

For once Jane was actually glad about being, in a very real fashion, a part of Jean. Most of the time she would hate admiting it, but it did give her some defence against Logan's wondering - there were differences, but they weren't glaring and were fairly easily explained away if she had to. "I was just walking through the park and ended up here. Seemed a waste not to stop."

There were differences from the woman he knew - the woman he _watched die_ - but he couldn't be _sure_ that she wasn't exactly who she said she was - Doctor Jean Grey. "I wanted to see you." he said softly. "I mean, watchin' you die was not my idea of a good time." he explained.

Oh hell, not another Jean Grey Fanclub member - Jane could hear it in his tone and it was kind of sickening, but she covered that reaction up well. "I know," she said, equally softly. "I'm sorry."

Something there rang an alarm bell. Something there wasn't right, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "You did what you had to do" he said softly.

"Doesn't mean I wanted to leave you all, or put you through it." And it definitely hadn't meant she'd wanted to come back.

"And I'm sorry." he said, ramming a fist into her gut and popping out his claws. There was just enough wrong in her stance and in her words and scent to justify him cutting her down where she stood.

"Shit!" There was barely a hair's breath between the thought in his mind and the action, but it was enough to keep from getting gutted. The fist knocked the air out of her, even as her telekinesis wrapped around his claws, keeping them from eviscerating her. She shoved him backwards with the TK in the next instant before the need to get air into her again took her control away from her.

Logan didn't plan on giving her time to recover. He kept on her, swinging this time for her jaw and for what he hoped would be a quick knockout. If he didn't, she'd just eat his mind for breakfast.

Or she would just take the fist that was swinging towards her and haul it off course and up - two feet higher than he could reach on his own and that left his legs dangling above ground while she made sure she was out of range. "Christ, Logan, I earned this how?" He hadn't been certain, he couldn't have been, there was no way...

"There's something wrong." he said, straining to get out of her telekinetic grip. He was a dead man, that much he knew for sure by now. The advantage was all hers. "Too much didn't add up. It's subtle, but there's something off about you."

Killing him would be easy, and the fucker had hit her, but they were in public - already the crowd was reacting as it would to the man hanging in midair - and he had to have told Scott and the others where he was going. Besides, not killing him was what Jean would do, and anything to reconfirm that, keep them off her back, had to be done.

"Hell, Logan," she said, coughing again and rubbing at her midsection, "and surviving my own death wasn't enough of an explantion for you? The two years as an amnesiac in Vancouver and the interveening hell that this last year has been couldn't explain the changes? You haven't seen me in three years, but the minute you do the fact that I'm different is enough of an excuse to try to gut me?"

"Fuckin' students and tapin' it for your ex's viewing pleasure isn't something Jean Grey would ever do." he said calmly. Way he figured it he had _one_ shot at this - screw it up again and he was a dead man or a thrall. "Can't explain it to you - I just _know_."

"You just know it, even though you've been gone and I've been dead longer than you knew me to begin with? Or is this just because you're upset you weren't around for me to decide to hurt Scott by sleeping with you? The hell with this, Logan. I'm tired of having people decide that because they don't like how I'm living my life, that it's not me deciding to do it. I. Am. Myself. I'm who I've always been."

Logan blinked at Jean's rather wild accusations. "You've completely lost it, you know that?" he said disbelievingly. But despite himself she was reaching him - he was acting on little more than wild suspicions backed up with evidence so slender it would take him a week to explain it to somebody who didn't have his level of acute senses.

Doubt. There had to be doubt. And breaking him out of his instinctive reactions was the only way to do that with him - he would only doubt himself if he stopped to think about it first. "Says the man who just tried to kill me in the middle of Central Park."

"When you're throwing down with a telepath and a telekinetic, one shot is generally all you get." he said with frustration, taking another aimless swipe at her with his free hand.

"And the fact that I haven't, for instance, turned your brain into mush or stopped your heart earns me no points? This is a fabulous 'I'm back, glad you're not dead anymore' present, Logan - suspicion, anger and the odd murder attempt."

Logan snarled at her words. "Dammit, you're _not Jean_! I can't prove
it, I just got a feeling in my gut." he said with frustration. "Saw my
shot, took it, and didn't get it done."

"You know what, fine. I'm tired of this having this argument with everyone. Think what you want, I don't care anymore." And, making sure there was a solid TK shield around her, she set him back on the ground. "Welcome back, Logan. Now leave me alone."

Logan glared at Jean for a moment, then shook his head. "Aw, fuck" he said, running his hand through his hair. "Maybe you're right and I'm just too fucking edgy." he conceded. "It's still good to see you alive." he said quietly.

"Which is why you were so determined to see me dead?" she asked, her voice chilly. "Takes a lot of the sincerity out of the sentiment, I have to say."

"Take it for what it is, Jean." he said, and then turned to go. He'd fucked up, he'd failed, and the worst part was the small voice inside him that was telling him that Jean was off her nut _would not shut up_.

"It's good to see you, too," she said softly, before turning and heading off the other way.

His hearing was easily sharp enough to pick up her comment, and he grinned to himself as he dug himself out a cigar and lit it before heading back to where he'd left the bike.

When Slim got back he had some 'splainin' to do, as the old show said.