Doug & Jubilee log

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Warning for possible triggering content. Very mild but thought it best to warn anyhow.

Doug rescues Jubilee from a date gone wrong.




Jubilee toed her mobile over, and quickly poked at the buttons, choosing the first contact that came up and typing a quick SOS message with her big toe before sending it off. She looked over at the mostly naked man she'd just kicked in the head, and then back at the cuffs holding her to the bed. She really, really needed to start choosing better dates, ones that didn't get off smacking their bed partners around for one.

Doug fumbled around at his nightstand, rubbing his eyes with one hand and grabbing his phone with the other. He blinked at the message and who it was from, then sighed. Marie-Ange made a half-awake questioning noise from the other side of the bed. Doug shook his head and stood as carefully as he could so as not to disturb her. "I got it, go back to sleep."

Given that he'd been texting with Jubilee earlier before bed, and she'd been talking about clubbing and bringing some guy home with her, it was a safe bet that she was in her apartment and needed some help running Guy Of The Week off. He pulled on the pair of boxer briefs and jeans that were closest to hand, and snagged a T-shirt before letting himself out into the hallway. If Guy Of The Week decided to get frisky, the T-shirt could be useful.

He let himself into Jubilee's apartment with a spare key, then surveyed the living room area. "Jubes?" he called out, just loud enough to be heard in the bedroom but hopefully not wake up any of their teammates in the surrounding apartments.

"Here," she called, watching as the man she'd brought home attempted to decide between clutching himself where she'd kicked him before she kicked him in the head, and thinking thoughts of revenge.

Jubilee hoped he made the smart decision, which was not to do anything of the like. She might not be close to a knife, but her legs were still free and now with Doug here, that made it much easier. Frankly, they were all lucky she hadn't been anywhere near her knives, or she would've had to explain to Remy why she'd killed some random dude in their place of residence, what a fuckup that would've been.

Doug strode quickly into the bedroom, and took in the situation in a heartbeat. Jubilee, handcuffed to her headboard in only her panties. Chafed reddened skin on her wrists suggested roughness, as did some discoloration that might turn into bruising on her upper arms. Her cell phone, just within toe's reach pulled out of her pants on the floor. The beginnings of some tearing on her panties, which looked to have been stalled by the large red foot-sized mark on her 'date's' cheek.

Doug sized up the staggering man with narrowed eyes. Heavily dilated pupils - drunk. Overly emphasized workout body - an excess of machismo. And by his treatment of Jubilee, seemingly the sort that took swings at his dates to feel more like a man. And if Doug hadn't arrived, he doubted the man would have stopped at just one well-placed kick to the face, especially since he already clearly hadn't taken no for an answer.

He gripped the T-shirt that he hadn't bothered to put on, and decided to play the jilted boyfriend angle. "Get out," he growled, shifting away from the doorway to give his opponent a clear exit. Not that the other man took it, instead charging at Doug with a bellow and arms spread wide. Doug ducked to the side, around and outside the grapple. In a flash, he had the T-shirt looped around Testosterone Lad's neck, and twisted. "Let me make myself clearer," Doug grunted. "Leave now while you can still do it on your feet."

Drunken bravado melted away, and Jubilee's date made a dash for the door as Doug loosened his grip and helped him along with a shove. The door slammed shut, and Doug turned back to Jubilee. "You really need to find a better class of date to bring home, Jubes," he told her with a shake of his head.

"He looked alright to start with, if he hadn't totally ignored the safe word I'd have been fine." Jubilee said examining the cuffs above her head, and then looking around for the lockpicks she kept close to her bed. You could never tell when something interesting was going to happen, so she mostly kept everything within the reach of at least one of her feet, if not her hands. She spotted them finally, tucked slightly under her bedside table and reached for them with her foot.

"Maybe if I took a picture for posterity, it might drive the lesson home," Doug joked, a glint catching his eye. He bent down and snagged the key to the handcuffs. Jubilee clearly was lacking body modesty, and Doug's hadn't ever really come back entirely since Day Zero. Now that the immediate threat was gone, the situation seemed a bit more comical. "Hold still," he told Jubilee, and leaned over her to unlock the cuffs.

Jubilee rolled her eyes, but waited for Doug to undo the cuffs, rubbing her wrists once she could. "Sophia would probably have something to say about it, I'm sure. Danger seeking hobbies, or something like that."

She slipped off the bed and went looking for her robe, finally finding it hanging from a chair by the kitchen. She wondered what she'd been doing when she put it there but shrugged the question off as she slipped it over her arms and settled it around herself.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life," Doug told Jubilee, leaning a hip against the counter in her kitchen, "just that you should maybe be a little bit more cautious?" He was the littlest bit worried about the reckless behavior, to be honest, and whether or not it was because of something deeper.

"So Sofia says," Jubilee noted mildly, padding over to her kitchen and flicking the switch on her coffee maker. Since she wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight after her latest mis-adventure, she might as well do something useful with her time. "Coffee?"

"Enh, sure." Doug was awake enough that getting back to sleep would be questionable for him as well. Between the rigors of their job and the long-standing nightmares after Day Zero, he tended to sleep rather lightly on the best of nights. Not nearly as poorly as Marie-Ange, but still.

"You don't have to worry so much, you know," Jubilee noted, pulling open the door to her fridge and looking inside. There wasn't a lot inside, it was off pay week and she hadn't yet gone down to the local supermarket to restock. "If it came down to it, I'd do what needed doing."

"Whether you'd do what needs doing isn't the point, Jubes." Doug rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't doubt that any member of X-Force would 'do what needs doing' in the clutch. "It's about being in the situation where it needs doing in the first place, much less here where we live."

"Dude, no lectures, yeah?" Jubilee finally said, turning tired eyes to her friend. "I know what I'm doin' ain't healthy but sometimes...Havin' someone here just makes my head quieter, and with Jake gone it ain't like I can just turn up on someone's couch at 2am lookin' for someone to shut up the bad stuff."

She turned back to the fridge and pulled out a yogurt before fishing in one of her nearby kitchen drawers for a spoon, making a questioning gesture to see if Doug wanted one as well.

Doug was guessing there wasn't much coffee to be had, but the coffee wasn't the point, spending some time with Jubilee was, so he accepted a yogurt and spoon. "It's not so much a lecture as...I fret sometimes. I did it after Amanda and Angelo broke up, and she got on me for being a mother hen. But I still worry."

"There's nothing wrong with being a mother hen," Jubilee noted, watching the coffee peculate, her back to her friend, arms crossed, almost as if she were giving herself a comforting hug. "I don't know that I'm exactly the best person for you to be worrying about, though. I'm like, pretty high maintenance that way."

"I worry at least a bit about just about everyone on the team," Doug admitted. "Even Remy. Sort of." Those worries were more what the hell they would all do if Gambit ever resurfaced, but it counted as worrying, technically.

"I think you should tell Remy of your worries," Jubilee noted, an expression of angelic innocence on her face as she pulled the top off her yogurt. "Give him one of those manly 'I'm hugging you but I'm hitting you' bonding hugs too."

Doug gave Jubilee a rather disbelieving look and shook his head. "Yeah, um, how about no." Because he really wanted to make Remy uncomfortable. About as much as he wanted to get shot again.

"He's just a big softie, really," Jubilee said, trying to keep a straight face as she widened her eyes at her friend. "He totally only throws people out of windows to show he cares. We should start callin' him 'Remy Bear' or something, just to show him we see through his manly super-spy disguise to the marshmallow beneath."

"Uh...huh." Doug firmed up his 'disbelieving face'. "How about you try it out first."

Jubilee winked and picked up the now freshly perculated coffee and poured out two cups, pushing one toward Doug.

"Do I look like a lady with the deathwish?"

"Well, you obviously have one for me..." Doug stuck his tongue out over his cup before taking a sip.