Jubilee and Maverick - early Wednesday morning

[x-maverick.livejournal.com]

One of Jubilee's late-night snoopings brings her face to face with her newest comrade in an unexpected way.



Jubilee slipped through the window, the application of a set of lockpicks and some well placed oil making her entrance as soundless as she possibly could. She padded silently over the cracked linoleum floor of the kitchen, and into the main room of the apartment, breathing even and unhurried. It wasn't so much that she tried to make no noise, in that she tried to make no private noises. No sounds that might indicate that there was indeed someone that was not meant to be in your apartment, standing just outside your door. She wondered briefly if David North had chosen to leave his kitchen floor unrepaired, or simply hadn't gotten to it yet. Either could tell you something of the personality of a person, from how often they liked to cook, to whether they were completely OCD.

There was a degree of trust within which the members of their group worked, an unspoken agreement to put your lives in each others hands, and to always have the back of the person you were working with. It was enough that Betsy had vouched for him, that meant she could work with him without fear of a knife in her back, but Jubilee liked to know something of the people around her and that wasn't something she'd learn just by talking to the man. She'd always found that the best way to find out things that people wouldn't tell you, was to go snooping through their stuff. Which was why she'd arrived at his apartment, at this, a most unusual hour of the morning.

The boxes still stacked in David's apartment ranged from simple cardboard containers and banker's boxes to full-on military-spec containers with electronic keypad locking devices. The first one Jubilee silently slid open was a wooden case containing what appeared to be... a clock?

Whatever it was, it certainly didn't make the telltale click of the safety being released on a semi-automatic pistol - that noise definitely came from the bedroom behind her. As did the source of the red dot she saw appearing and disappearing in her peripheral vision, letting her know that the apartment's occupant most likely had a clear shot at the back of her head.

"Before you break into a man's home," North's accent sounded through the quiet apartment, "you may want to establish his recent sleeping patterns. Please do not put your fingers on my 1834 Schoenwald. It is an antique."

It was a testament to the amount of time Remy's friends had put into training her reflexes and instincts that she didn't immediately go into fight or flight mode. Instead, she simply stood and backed away from the box, hands held loosely and open at her sides.

"I'll keep that in mind next time." she murmured, finally turning around to face him. "You sleep with that thing?"

She motioned to the gun with a chin thrust, not moving her hands an inch from where they hung.

David raised an eyebrow from where he sat on the edge of his bed -which was basically a bare mattress on an unadorned frame - and after a brief second, lowered the hammer on his pistol carefully and pointed it at the floor. "Do you always question the ingrained habits of those you burgle?" he asked in response. Not waiting for an answer, he chuckled and walked out of his bedroom, absently hitting one of the light switches on his way to the kitchen.

"Jubilation Lee, if I'm not mistaken, although you prefer Jubilee. You're an orphan, originally from the Southern California area, spent a lot of time homeless but also quite a bit outside the States. Recently, if I've not lost my touch." North's quick evaluation was slightly muffled by the sounds of his rummaging through a cupboard, emerging with a half-open box of double-chocolate cookies.

Jubilee did notice, among other things, that he hadn't put down the pistol the entire time.

"Impressive." Jubilee noted, eyes fixed on his face, rather then on the pistol. If he was going to shoot her, she'd see it there first, or in the movements of his shoulders, not in his hand. "I thought you said I wasn't on the books."

That wasn't to say he couldn't have done some questioning, or found out things about her considering he knew her full name. She just hadn't thought that anyone would take an interest in her that she had taken in them. It probably said more about her personality flaws then it did about anything else.

"Of the Snow Valley Center? No," David replied, taking a seat in a small folding chair next to a cheap end table and setting his pistol down - notably still within arm's reach. "But it took all of ten minutes' reading on the Xavier Institute journal system and a few direct questions to salve my curiosity. As for the specifics," he sighed and began noshing on cookies, chewing rapidly as if he hadn't eaten in days. "I used to hunt spies for a living, young lady. Old habits do die hard."

Casually, he reached into the box and flipped a cookie over to Jubilee like a coin and motioned to another folding chair with a nod. "I take it curiosity brought you in here at this hour fit only for vampires and infomercials. Since I lack a television and have a serious lack of supernatural bloodsuckers here, there's no reason your work should go to waste. What is it you are looking for?"

Jubilee caught the cookie effortlessly and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully for a moment as she eyed the offered chair. Seemingly making a decision, she hooked the legs with one foot, turning it so she could lean her arms against the back as she sat.

"I like to know the people I work with beyond just a vote of confidence from my employer." Jubilee noted, eyes never leaving his face. She didn't have to look at the gun, she knew it was there, and that he was keeping it close enough to shoot her if he needed to. It was a toss up as to which of them would be faster should he chose to use it. She hadn't yet tried to outrun a bullet, and she hopefully wouldn't need to tonight.

"I wanted to know something about you that you wouldn't tell me if you had a choice."

David openly snorted at Jubilee's cocksure admission, gesturing towards the boxes. "And you thought you would find it here, Mädchen? Let me save you the effort. These?" he indicated the boxes in cardboard, mostly bearing signs of some water damage hastily covered with packing tape. "These are the remnants of eleven years of lies. A cover identity, a falsehood. David North, created out of whole cloth by the expert mindfuckers of Weapon X. No hobbies, no living family, nothing distinguishing at all. His clothes, his papers, his bric-a-brac - the story of an absolutely mundane, unremarkable man."

He stood, walking over to the open wooden crate and gently using a chamois cloth to lift the varnished cherry-wood clock out of its padded case. "This, on the other hand, is the legacy of a different man. I collect them, you see. The Furtwangen style, specifically, although this is an outlier." Gingerly, he carried the clock over to a bare wall, finding a previously-tapped nail to hang it carefully on. With a shrug, he turned back to Jubilee.

"These are souvenirs, young lady. They will not tell you much about me except where I have been."

"You called me young lady, which says that you're either trying to make me feel like a subordinate, or that you were trained with old world style manners, or that you think it makes you sound charming." Jubilee noted, resting her chin on her arms as she watched him. "You care more about that clock then you seem to about anything else in your apartment. You could've had better furniture moved in by now, you've had more then enough time. The different man, is that the real you or another cover identity? Do you know who you are, or are you like Logan?"

They were quick fire questions, said in her usual way without prevarication. This man was a colleague, and she wouldn't pretend to be anything but what she was around the people in her team. It wasn't needed, and what was more, she didn't want to do it. Remy had been right in that at least, you had to trust that they could take you, warts and all.

"I'm at least twice your age," David replied just as brusquely, "and have likely been in the game longer than you've been alive. Not," he added with a raised finger, "to imply any lack of professional experience on your part or lack of inscrutable charm on mine. I collect clocks because I find them interesting, read into that what you will. I haven't put forth the effort into acquiring much of the aesthetic for this apartment, because..."

He paused at that, one hand scratching at his chin. "You know, I don't really know the answer to that. I've been living out of hotels and safehouses for the last three years, I suppose I've been treating this brownstone as no different. And to answer your last, Jubilee - yes and no. I haven't had the chance to yet reacquaint myself with Logan, although I'm aware he's back at the Institute. I suppose you could call it, 'choosing my moment'."

"Remy would tell me that this is the time I shut up and learn rather then running off at the mouth. Well, more like he'd say 'Remy tink dis de time you be shutting up, and learn somethin' but you get me. " Jubilee noted, eyes roving around the apartment once more. "Are you going to be with us for awhile, David?"

He was right, she was much younger then he was, and a lot less experienced in the game. Remy had noted as much to her after her solo test. It would take her a long time to get the experience she needed, even if she had the basic training down enough that they'd let her out without training wheels.

Pondering the question for a while, David nodded as he tapped a cigarette out of a pack on the end table, lighting it and taking a long drag before exhaling thoughtfully. "I can't see that far ahead," he said, half in jest. "Betsy's offered me a chance to have a part in something where I can make use of what I know how to do. And to be frank, any operation that manages to have Elisabeth Braddock, Remy LeBeau, and Pete Wisdom working together is something I want to be a part of, as opposed to being eventually hunted by."

"That's a start then, sorta. Most of us didn't really know how long we were going to be here when we arrived. If you'll let me, I'll talk to Marie-Ange about doing something about this place, get it being more then just a place you crash between trips." Jubilee said, giving his response some thought as she eyed the cigarette pack on the table. She wondered if asking for one would be considered forward, although considering she'd broken into his apartment, she wasn't sure how she could be considered more forward. "You need a home, not just a place you live, yeah? It's the difference between us and any other tin bit outfit out there. We don't just do things 'cause of some high ideal. We do things cause we've gotta live here too. Makes it harder to make bad choices when you think of it like that, least for me."

That got a self-effacing chuckle from the former secret agent. "There's nothing wrong with idealism, Jubilee. So long as you temper it with realism. William Stryker, you know who he is, obviously. Your former captor, my former boss. He always told us that we were making a finer world. I note that he never mentioned getting to live in it. I think..." Another long drag on the cigarette punctuated David's thought. "I think I would like that, yes."