Log - Jean and Marie go out for drinks

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Backdated due to timezones and work and me being a doof.



"You know, Harry, a girl would think you didn't miss her. Not even a batted eye when I walked in the door after four months." Jean laughed when all he did was arch an eyebrow at her. "Fine, yes, it doesn't compare to coming back after two years of being dead, but still. You could at least give us this round on the house..." She grinned at the bartender, the grin that had been getting her free drinks since before she was technically allowed to drink and, as always, Harry laughed and handed over the glasses.

Making her way back to Marie, she set the two glasses on the table and sat down. "Here you go. First round's on Harry."

Marie offered a brief moment of applause for Jean. "Ah knew Ah still had a few things to learn from my teachers at Xavier's," she said with a wink as she reached out to take the glass. "Why wasn't that ever a class? How to get your drinks for free. Ah can guarantee enrollment would always be full for that class."

"Hey," Jean said with a grin, "you think Charles taught me that one? Definitely a 'life lesson'. And one, my dear, that you would pass with flying colors if you gave it a shot. Easily ninety-five percent of the guys in any bar would buy you a drink if you asked."

Taking a sip of her drink, Marie set the glass down gently. "Maybe," she said with a noncommittal shrug. "But Ah don't really wanna deal with any guys right now. They're just so...argh sometimes."

"Uh-oh," Jean said, eyebrows raising. "That sounds familiar. What's up?"

Marie hesitated for a second before talking. It wasn't like Jean wasn't aware of the issues anyways, right? "Between your husband and my best friend, Ah felt like Ah was talking to a couple of rocks." She took another sip of her drink. "Though they both seemed to see at least some reason by the end."

"Ah," Jean said, nodding and taking a drink. "That's because they are a pair of stubborn mules, the both of them. I'm sorry you ended up having to deal with them." Jean knew she should probably be doing something about the problem between Scott and Logan, or not doing something, or whatever, but she honestly hadn't had the time before she went to Tibet, and even it Tibet it had seemed a nearly insurmountable problem. And clearly her quiet wish that the two of them would become best friends and everything would have been better by the time she came back had been proven a pipe dream.

"Ah originally thought about covering the two of them in tuna fish and locking them in a room, like my momma did for a pair of kittens we had once," Marie said. "Then Ah realized that it would take too many cans," she finished completely deadpan. She trailed gloved covered fingers across the table until they wrapped around the base of her glass. "Ah at least got Scott to agree to hit the punching bag instead of Logan and Logan to try and think before letting his instincts take over. That should last what, a week? Maybe two?"

"Here's to you, then," Jean said, lifting her glass in toast. "Let us enjoy this week's worth of peace you've made." Taking a drink, she set her glass back down before continuing, "Seriously, though, I wish I knew what to do."

"You're the telepath," Marie replied with a raised eyebrow. "Ah was hoping you could tell me."

Jean's look was somewhat dark as she answered, "Yeah, the only answer I've got there involves me being the scary telepath and going in and rewriting someone's brain to change the situation. And still, that's not really the answer, since far as I can tell, it'd have to be my brain being rewritten."

"Yeah, the less of the scary telepath the better. Ah don't need anymore white hair." Marie cocked her head to the side and looked curiously at Jean. "But Ah don't see how rewriting your brain would fix things. Ah haven't had to talk with you about playing nice in the sandbox."

Jean looked away for a moment, then took another drink. "Take away Logan's justification," she said eventually. "Take away one of the things I know Scott worries about." Another drink. "Take away the bit of me that is attracted to him."

"Oh." Lifting her glass, Marie didn't set it down until it was empty. "Well that does make things complicated. But Ah guess...well, if relationships were simple, everyone would have one." And since you're lucky enough to have one, don't do anything stupid and screw it up. "Guess it all comes down to the decisions you make."

Jean arched an eyebrow at the unvoiced thought, squelching the impulse to answer crankily that she had a tad more self control than that, or defend herself in anyway. She didn't like that she was attracted to someone other than her husband, and it wasn't a good thing in any way shape or form. "Exactly," she said. "And both of them know that, and know what decision I have made, and will make. But it doesn't change the fact. I could lie about it, but Scott's in my head and Logan would know, and it would just hurt everyone more."

"That's what Ah tried to tell them. You made your choice an' Ah don't have any doubts that you plan on sticking to it," Marie said, pausing as waitress brought them two more drinks. "An Ah think you're right to be honest, even if Scott wasn't in your head. Things are just always better that way, when it's the big stuff."

"That's what I tell myself," Jean said, accepting the new drinks and knocking back the last of her current drink. "Well, that and that I'm a little too fucked up for my own or anyone else's own good. But that goes with the territory and Xavier's diploma."

"You'd think that'd make it into the motto," Marie said with a wry smile. "We should all come with warning labels." Laying her gloved hands on the table, she looked at her finger spread out on the table as her voice grew dark. "Some of us with more dire ones than others."

Jean laid her own hand over Marie's gloved one, offering her a sympathetic little smile when she finally looked up, but she didn't push the topic, changing the subject instead. "I saw in the school files that you're RAing these days."

Marie smiled back, grateful for the change of subject. "Yeah and Dani too. Ah like being around the kids. Keeps me young," she said with a wink.

"Oh, as if you needed to be kept young." Jean playfully stuck her tongue out at the other woman. "Let's not talk about me being in my third decade."

"Like you even look it. Who's the one at this table with white hair?" Marie teased, wrapping a pale lock around her finger. "Though maybe being around for the students isn't the best way to keep the rest of my hair brown."

"I'd say the trick is to pull them out, but you have a few too many for that one to work. And yeah, the kids... don't help. It's when you start naming your white hairs after particular students that you need to worry, though." Jean grinned. "Pretty sure you got one of mine when you were here."

"Mwah?" Marie said, widening her eyes innocently as she feigned a look of shocked surprise. "Why whatever could Ah have done to have earned me that kinda distinction?" she asked, intentionally thickening her drawl. "A poor Southern lady like myself?"

"Uh-huh." Jean snorted. "For that, you're buying or sweet talking Harry out of the next round."