Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie

[x-borealis.livejournal.com]

The restless twins discuss Jeanne-Marie's encounter with Jake and the recent troubles plaguing Alpha Flight.



The previous day's conversations with Lil and Jake had left Jean-Paul with a head full of thoughts that needed to be sifted through, and not enough time in which to do it. So he had decided to treat himself to an extra hour or so worth of work-out time once Jake had left for the airport. He kept himself confined to human-level speeds on the punching bags, but it wasn't quite what he needed, and so he switched to the uneven bars. It was easier to get lost in that sort of dizzying routine than when you had to concentrate on not wrecking the equipment, and if he lost his grip, well, there was always the advantage of flight.

It didn't entirely surprise him that his thoughts were more on Lil and Jeanne-Marie than on Jake. There was an inevitability between him and his lover that he had been trying to ignore since before Moldova. It didn't matter that Jake's scent still lingered on his sheets and pillows or that they had parted with kisses just that morning or how much they cared for each other (or claimed to). Sooner or later, Jake was going to break and run. Or, more likely, make Jean-Paul push him away. He could try to think better of Jake, to hope things could improve, or even just remind himself that he had been the one to break things off first, so what did he expect? It was all just trying not to think about the obvious -- the only thing to contemplate with Jake was if he wanted to salvage his self-esteem by breaking it off sooner rather than later, and he had more immediate matters on his mind.

Jeanne-Marie, that was a more complicated situation and tied to Lil's...or at least, they were both tied to the same line of thought. Alpha Flight. Lil was in the middle of whatever had happened up north. Jeanne-Marie knew nothing as of yet, and Jean-Paul had been severely tempted to keep it that way. Langkowski was apparently fine, more's the pity. As to the others, he could not find it in him to care overmuch one way or the other. The ones injured had been co-workers in a job he had never particularly enjoyed, and the dead were even less to him than that. Any importance they had to him stemmed from their relationships to those he did care about.

Which, unfortunately, meant he did have to break the news to Jeanne-Marie. She had been the one who had wanted a place in Alpha Flight from the start. The team had been freedom from the hell of her her old life. At the very least, she deserved to know. He would just have to hope this didn't end in a yelling match, the way so many of their discussions of the Flight program had.

Jean-Paul's absence from the typical places had not gone unnoticed. No sign of him in his suite or the mansion's vast kitchen that he was so fond of pursuing larger projects in or even in his office bent over a lesson plan that was coming slowly together. Fortunately, Jeanne-Marie's speed made quick work of the pursuit and she soon found herself in the entry to the gym, watching her brother's nimble, but unfocused, acrobatics on the uneven bars. Knit brows and tight muscles and turns landed with less precision than he was capable of, she knew her twin had something on his mind. And, despite a sharp fear that his displeasure might have something to do with her (there was certainly no absence of reasons), she could sympathize. Between Jake and Nathan and Jean-Paul himself, her own mind had been unable to settle in any sort of lasting way.

She allowed silence to linger for a long time before forcing herself to approach. Her voice came out smooth and quiet, aimed to jar Jean-Paul from his thoughts as gently as possible, "There you are. I have been looking."

Jean-Paul swung from the upper bar, out into open air and hovered, though he really didn't need the moment to recognize that voice so much as he did to collect his thoughts.

"And so you have found me." He landed easily and jogged over to Jeanne-Marie's side. "Is there something wrong?"

"Non," Jeanne-Marie said softly, wondering silently how blatant this dishonesty might seem to her brother's practiced ears, "Not with me. I was simply in want of your company. Though, when I checked your suite and your office and found no trace of you..." She offered her twin a small, transient smile, "Perhaps I worried a little. Your habits must be rubbing off." The brunette looked at her brother for an extended moment, lips gradually evening. Despite her insistence, she looked tired. Albeit, less tired than he did. "...Did I have just cause? You seemed distracted on the bars."

That his sister had not slipped into French on arrival was telling; it was a subtle way of keeping some distance between them, and a cue to Jean-Paul that he should proceed carefully.

"I have many things on my mind, yes. I am not sure how many of them would give you cause to worry about me." He leaned against the bars, arms folded behind his back, trying to appear relaxed. "I understand that you and Jake had a discussion about me the other night."

The casual posture did not seem to fit and only left Jeanne-Marie doubting his attempted reassurance more than she was already inclined to. The words that followed, delivered with the same forced ease, almost drew a visible flinch. She had still been uncertain whether conveying the good or the bad or the entirety of the encounter to her brother would have been a worthwhile thing...but it seemed Jake had made the decision for them both. He deserves honesty. She pushed back her dark hair slowly. "We did. Yes. I did not intend for things to go as they did, but...perhaps we understand one another better for it."

"So he said. I just..." How to put this? "You do not need to worry about me and Jake. I know where we stand, truly. I am not being taken advantage of."

"I know," Jeanne-Marie replied slowly, moving to join him near the lower of the bars. She folded her arms and leaned into the slim construct and hesitated before continuing, "I know there is no malice in his actions, whatever his faults. I know that you have chosen him and the relationship that you have. But it is difficult not to worry." Even with the tenuous civility established between herself and Jake, it seemed impossible not to. Her brother needed a stable and fulfilling relationship, something far removed from his distant period of self-destructive promiscuity, something which Jake was unlikely to ever provide, regardless of his efforts. It was what Jean-Paul had wanted and it was what Jeanne-Marie wanted for him.

But such thinking was what had brought them into confrontation in the first place. She added quietly, "But...I also know it is not my place to interfere. And I am sorry."

"I have done it often enough that I have no room to be angry." And there seemed little point in getting upset with his twin over a relationship that was likely dead on the vine anyway. "I only wish you had spoken to me first about your concerns, that is all." He folded his arms over his chest, trying to pluck up his courage. "There...is more on my mind as well. Bad news, I am afraid. Lillian has headed back home for a time. There was an accident involving the Flight program. I do not know many details, but Jeffries is in shock and Judd in a coma." He hesitated. "Five of Beta Flight's people are dead."

"Heathens, both of us," she smiled thinly, "I suppose it runs in the family." The expression waned and Jeanne-Marie's eyes drew instinctively from him, cast against the worn gym floor as she attempted to find the words to explain herself or to apologize again. But he continued and her search for the right words slid into a search for breath. An accident involving the Flight program. She felt suddenly light-headed and the words tumbled out carelessly in their native tongue and she immediately hated herself for it, "~Walter. What about Walter?~"

That was all the confirmation Jean-Paul needed that he had been right to tell his sister what had happened, yet it brought him no satisfaction. Knowing -- hearing in her voice -- that she still had feelings for Langkowski made him wish that he had kept his mouth shut.

"She said that...Walter is fine; I do not even know if he was present at the time. Judd is the only one of the old team hurt."

Relief and shame struggled for dominance on the woman's features and Jeanne-Marie looked away from him briefly to subdue both. She wanted nothing to do with Walter. Nothing. But the idea of his death was still enough to leave her heart feeling torn and twisted and beating so fast she could hear it in her ears. She swallowed and nodded. "Madison is lucky. Judd...Judd will come back. He is too stubborn to do otherwise." The reassurance felt hollow. "But five dead...Mon Dieu."

Jean-Paul finally moved to put an arm around his sister's shoulders, though he said nothing for the moment. The most prominent thought in his mind, that it was good that they had left when they had, was definitely not the best to say out loud and he could think of no reassurances. At length, "I did tell Lillian that she could call us if she needed anything, but I doubt she will take us up on the offer."
The gesture, at long last delivered, felt undeserved. Jean-Paul's feelings on her former fiancé were no secret, nor was the pain he had caused them both or the lingering effects of his interference in their relationship. His name had no place between them. Jeanne-Marie leaned gradually into him, careful to avoid contact with her brother's skin and silent until he spoke again. Lillian. In the midst of her own, unwarranted devastation she had almost forgotten. "Non. It would not be like her, no matter the pain she is in....How is she?"

"She says that she is 'okay'." His doubt as to the truth of that statement was plain in his voice. "So that is where things stand for now."

"Bien sûr," Jeanne-Marie replied quietly, her tone weighted with the same unspoken doubt. She leaned into him a fraction more. "...On shaky ground at best."

He stroked her hair in an attempt to comfort, equally careful to avoid skin-to-skin contact. "Did you want to go up, to see for yourself? I doubt they would have much use for me, but you were on better terms with Alpha Flight, I think?"

The notion of returning to Alpha Flight at all sparked an anxious hesitation in her, but the notion of doing so without Jean-Paul was immediately overwhelming. Jeanne-Marie shook her head slowly. "They have no use for me anymore either," Jeanne-Marie insisted, "Nor I for them. My thoughts will be with them, but that is all."

Jean-Paul nodded, some of the tension bleeding out of him at this quiet reassurance. That part of their lives was well and truly behind them. No more being dragged back into the old patterns. "We do not belong there, I think."

"No. We do not." Jean-Paul, at least, belonged here. Jeanne-Marie was not certain about herself, but...for the time being she was content to belong only with her brother. She settled one hand against the arm he had draped around her, fingers holding gently to his sleeve. "Perhaps that is not such a bad thing."