Log: [Forge and Jennie] - Breaking

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Forge on his mad dash to find Marius, finds Jennie. A very angry Jennie.



Forge hit the steps at a run, leaning against the railing for balance as he hopped down, one foot bouncing off the steps as he let gravity carry him. Marius wasn't in the suite, and all that was crossing Forge's mind were those last words.

"I'm leavin'."

He kept telling himself there wasn't any way Marius would have been angry enough to leave. No way he could have gotten away with it in the... complete chaos that the medlab had been after San Diego. Of course he could have slipped out.

Cursing his own stupidity, Forge ducked his head into the library. No Marius here either. He swore under his breath, making his way into the kitchen. He'd have to tell someone. The Professor, the doctors, somebody was going to have to know. And then they could find him.

Forge couldn't help from feeling that he'd somehow caused it, that if he'd only been a bit more sympathetic, a little less arrogant in his ability to help fix things, that Marius would be right around the corner, walking back into the infirmary for a checkup.

Jennie slammed open the door out of the second floor and pounded down the stairs, taking two at at time. She had to get out of the mansion, and get out now. She was so angry she was starting to see more red than normal, and she knew enough to go out into the woods when she was about to really start breaking things. She didn't see Forge until she almost ran over him.

Catching his breath, Forge put his hands on Jennie's shoulders to steady himself. "This is going to sound kind of crazy," he began, blinking away the growing feeling of panic. "But have you seen Marius? He's not in the infirmary, he's not in the suite, and I've got this crazy idea he's done something dumb."

Jennie barked a laugh. "Yup, you guessed right. He's done something incredibly stupid." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the hastily folded note. It was on nice Xavier's stationary in Marius's distinctive elegant handwriting. He had left it in her mailbox, where she had discovered it only a few minutes ago.

Taking the note, Forge read it over, lips moving in disbelief. "This isn't... he couldn't just..." Calmly, he handed the note back to Jennie and took a step back.

Suddenly turning, he slammed his fist into the wall in anger. "Idiot!" he exclaimed, pacing back and forth. "Just because they can't come up with an immediate solution to one problem! One fucking problem! Wasn't enough to save his life, of course not. The damn arrogant idiot!"

Jennie folded the note and stuck it back in her pocket. Angry tears stung her eyes, so she rubbed them with the heels of her hands. "I know," she said quietly. "God, if only we hadn't had that dumb fight." Then maybe they would have been talking all week. She could have made him stay.

"You guys?" Forge paused, hand cocked back to thump the wall again. "Wait, you had a fight with Marius? I mean, no. That couldn't have been it. I was trying to talk some sense into him because I was worried, and he said he was leaving. I didn't know he was serious, dammit! I'd have told someone!"

"Yeah, don't know if you'd noticed, but he and I hadn't spoken all week. Had a bad fight last Saturday. I pushed when I shouldn't of and he tore into me." Crystal was right, she should have just talked to him, and not put it off. "Fuck." Jennie clenched her fists. "I need to go outside, now, Forge," she said a little too calmly, "otherwise I'm going to end up breaking a few things."

"Then I'm going with you," Forge said, "because I already was stupid enough to not be there for one friend when he was stressing, and now he's gone and taken off like a - gah," he growled, leaning heavily into the wall. "He didn't understand that I was trying, hard as I can I was trying to understand what was going on with him, but I can't! It doesn't make sense to me, I'm not smart like that. I kept trying to find a solution for the immediate problems - no breathing? Yeah, that I can fix. But when he needed a friend? I couldn't be there. This is my fault," he insisted.

"No, fuck that." Jennie said angrily. "He's the one who left, remember? Nobody fucking forced him, nobody drove him away, he made the decision himself." But there was a small part of Jennie that wondered if she was just as culpable. After all, hadn't she avoided him all week, when he really needed her because she was afraid of another fight? Nearby, dry rot in a shelf finally had the misfortune of causing it to snap, and the candlesticks that had been set on it tumbled to the carpet.

"Fuck!" Jennie cried. She turned on her heel and darted the rest of the way out the front door.

"Hey!" Forge shouted, running after Jennie. In his haste, he didn't pay attention to the front steps, his artificial leg hitting the edge of one of the steps, shooting out from under him. Flailing for balance, his hands hit the stone landing hard, keeping him from a total faceplant. Struggling up to his feet, he felt the telltale twinge that meant at least something in his leg had burned out. Not important now, fix later, he told himself, lurching to a standing position.

"It's not your fault!" he called out, limping after Jennie. "Can you slow down already?"

Out, she had to get out. Away. She didn't want Forge's help, didn't need it. She had to deal with this on her own. Realization struck her when she was halfway across the lawn. She stopped dead in her tracks, and put her face in her hands to muffle a frustrated scream. Of course. "That big stupid....dumbass."

Brushing his hair away from his eyes, Forge staggered over to Jennie. "Look," he panted, "Marius went and did something stupid, all right? Because he had this stupid idea that he was all alone. That no one could help him, no matter how much they tried. He was an idiot," Forge practically spat in frustration. "He's my friend, but good GOD is he ever self-centered, arrogant, proud... so maybe you guys had an argument. But like you just told me, HE made the choice to leave. You didn't make it for him."

"It makes me so mad," Jennie said quietly, her voice tight with anger, "because I know how he feels. Doesn't make it any more right, but I understand." I understand, and I really don't want to. She pulled the note out of her pocket. "And he didn't even bother to tell me in person. Just a note, and no way of getting a hold of him."

"He'll be in contact," Forge assured her, trying to believe it himself. "Come on, as stupid as this is, there's no way he's abandoning his friends completely. That's not how Marius is, you know that. He's..." Forge paused, hobbling over to sit in the grass by the edge of the driveway.

"I worry about him," he said, head in his hands. "I know he's got to get his head together throughout all this, and if he wants to do it somewhere else - he's an idiot, but he'll do it. I just ... I'm so damn angry at him! He couldn't have trusted in the doctors? Trusted that they can help him - shit, they helped fix Haroun when he had his damn body ripped in half! This is a drop in the damn bucket!"

Punching the warm grass impotently, Forge's shoulders shook. "But even still, nothing I could do. So in an ironic way, I guess I see where he got so frustrated. Everything going wrong, and nothing you can do to stop it."

Jennie sat down next to Forge. "Yeah, but the doctors, they've never fixed him. Fixed this-" She held up a hand and pointed to her palm. "I mean, he would joke about flipping out and attacking people, but..." Jennie sighed. "It bothered him, y'know? It would bother anyone. He got the shittiest mutation ever, and it just kept getting worse." Jennie tore up a handful of grass. "Growing up, he wasn't like us, Forge. Before he came here, he was happy. He had it good, and then things fell apart." She flung the grass away.

"I know," Forge admitted sadly. "It's always been this wall between him and me, you know? Everything I have to be proud of is the same stuff that makes his life hell. And I'm going to figure out how to set that right - whether he's here or not," he swore, then leaned forward to wrap his arms around his knees and rock back and forth. "If I'd have had any idea he'd have done something stupid like this, I'd have stuck a damn GPS tracker in that respirator. I should have, given the teleporting thing. Damn 20/20 hindsight..."

Jennie reached out and lightly hit Forge on the back of the head, not enough to hurt, but enough to make a point. "Stop it. Kicking yourself isn't going to bring him back, and it's only making me angrier." Jennie stood up and dusted off her behind. "I'm going to the woods, I'm so mad I'm going to start making bad things happen, and it'd be better if it was trees I was breaking instead of property."

"I'll be here," Forge said, shifting over towards the steps and unhooking his multi-tool from his belt to start tweaking whatever he'd damaged in his leg. "I mean that, Jennie. I'm not going anywhere. So, if you need anything..." he left the last part of the sentence unspoken and just shrugged.

Jennie gave him a small smile. "I know. I'll be back soon." She set off towards the woods at a more sedate pace. One day Forge, even you won't be there, she thought to herself. But that's okay, I can handle it. I can handle this. I've done it before, and I can do it again. I'll be fine.