Johnny and Jean-Paul

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Johnny tracks down Jean-Paul for some guidance on what do about his father's unexpectedly renewed interest in parenthood.



The call had not gone badly. It had been, in fact, the longest and most civil conversation he and Darren had made it through in years. But it still left Johnny feeling unsteady and uncertain, caught between renewed optimism and a wariness that was years in the making, and the only thing he could think to do was turn to his sole constant in this place. Jean-Paul always knew what to do.

The search had been a more prolonged process than he would have liked, bringing him from the man’s suite to his office, through the gym and the kitchen before he finally made his way out to the lake. At first seeing nothing, he frowned to himself, wondering where else there was to look and where the man might have gone and, worse, if he had left town again. The last trip had been pretty abrupt from the sound of things. These thoughts were cut off with a jolt as the man surfaced from beneath the water, dark hair slicked back and looking…relaxed. For a moment, he found himself tempted to forget the advice and drudging the unsettling matter up again in favor of joining his teacher in the water with an unwelcome cannonball. Instead, he made his way out onto the dock. “We have a pool, you know,” he offered almost lightly. Not that he would have thought to look for the man there.

The older man laughed briefly and was at the dock in a moment, resting his folded arms on the foremost plank rather than exit the lake entirely. "Would you believe I am keeping an eye on Nathan? No, I thought not. What brings you all the way out here?"

"I might've believed it," Johnny said, smiling just a little and scuffing one sneaker against the wooden planks. He moved to sit cross-legged at the edge of the dock, looking over at Jean-Paul and hesitating before admitting, "I was looking for you. This was the last place I could think of."

"Things do tend to be in the last place you look for them." Jean-Paul pulled himself up onto the dock effortlessly and reached for his towel, buffing his hair off before draping the towel over his shoulders. "What is on your mind?"

Johnny started to protest that Jean-Paul didn't need to get out of the water on his account or that they could talk later, maybe when he wasn't occupied or in such a pleasant mood that could be so easily ruined, but the speedster was already seated beside him and toweling off his dark, dripping hair. The dock bobbed beneath them and the teen pressed his palms down against the wood, searching for the correct words to answer the question. There seemed far too many and far too few at once and none of them seemed to fit. "Darren called," he blurted out finally.

Jean-Paul frowned, leaning back on his arms. Johnny's father was never a pleasant association, and Jean-Paul couldn't imagine what more he could do, aside from outright disowning his son, to push Johnny even farther out of his sphere of concern. "Bad news?" he asked cautiously.

The answer should have come more quickly than it did. It was good news. Wasn't it? Johnny dropped his elbows against his knees and folded his fingers together. "He...wanted to apologize. To know how I've been." He smiled weakly, voice dropping in volume enough that it was almost swallowed up by the sound of the the breeze on the water, "...he asked me to call him 'dad'. I think I almost choked on it."

"This has certainly come out of nowhere," Jean-Paul agreed softly. "I would not be able to accept it so easily myself. Did he give any indication for why the sudden change in heart?"

Johnny shook his head. "He just said he's my dad. That...it's time he stopped acting like it was something he didn't ask for and that he wanted to be part of my life." A small, involuntary smile pulled at the edges of his lips, but the expression was as sad and uncertain as it was happy, "It...made me feel kind of good. But..."

"But after so long, it must seem too good to be true." Jean-Paul sighed, considering. "I know it is hard to give him another chance, to risk being hurt and disappointed again. If you think he is sincere, though, it might be a second chance for you as well."

"Would you?" the boy ventured quietly, a poorly concealed hope for validation gathering in his voice as he looked at the older mutant again.

The older mutant offered the boy a crooked smile. "I was hoping you would not ask that. My history with fathers is a mess of its own. Honestly? I could not have forgiven most of them, but my circumstances were very different from yours. Your father has been neglectful and it is right that he should acknowledge the wrong he has done to you. It is a start. I think that you should look more for the answers to your questions before you decide either way." Jean-Paul turned his gaze back out to the water. "But you will still have to talk to him before you get those answers."

It wasn't the reassuring answer part of him had hoped for, but it was it was genuine and it helped dispel some fraction of the burden from the teen. At least now he knew what he needed to do. Johnny smiled a little and suggested, "Payback for making me search the whole campus for you?" It was a fleeting levity and he looked at the man for a long moment before speaking again, noting his scars and and his worn tone of voice when speaking of his past with a thoughtful sadness. Maybe it wasn't such a good thing that Jean-Paul could help with anything. It only meant he had been through everything. "...I will, Mr. Beaubier."

"You may also consider speaking to Scott about the matter...I'm sure he has much better insight into the issue than I could."

"Mr. Summers?" Johnny inquired softly. He knew almost nothing about the man's family life apart from his marriage to Dr. Grey, but he knew he shouldn't have been surprised that the trend of familial difficulties existed among faculty and students alike. His lips drew into a thin frown as he wondered if Victor might be the only mutant on the face of the Earth whose family didn't follow procedure. "...Maybe."

"It is something to consider, at least." Jean-Paul kept his relaxed pose, making no effort to move away from the conversation, or hint to Johnny that he was being a burden.

The white-haired teen bobbed his head in agreement and allowed the space between them to go quiet, gaze joining Jean-Paul's upon the water. He couldn't help but think about the offer his father had given him. He wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to leave this place for good, but he knew he wasn't now.

It was Johnny who finally broke the silence and lead them away from the unhappy topic. He smiled a little, "...Mind if I swim with you?"

"We have a pool, you know," Jean-Paul said, not quite managing to pull off a deadpan. "But I think the odds of my still being here if you go to change are very good."