xp_logs | Jean & Logan: Tuesday Evening

x-jeangrey.livejournal.com posting in

Jean arrives at JFK airport from San Diego and finds Logan is her chauffeur back to the mansion. Sexual tension ensues.

JFK airport was one of the largest airports in the world. It was easy to get lost there in the hustle and bustle. People wandered around, a mixture of confident and confused, rushed and calm. Jean stepped off of her flight, her carry-on bag hoisted over her shoulder and a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. Stopping by the overpriced Starbucks kiosk, Jean soon grabbed the rest of her luggage from the bag check and made her way outside. The professor had mentioned he was going to be sending someone to pick her up.

A someone who was running just a little bit late, thanks to some truly wretched traffic heading into JFK. But it was hard to mistake Logan’s bike’s purring roar, not to mention the guy riding it with his Stetson, flannel, and denim. And the cigar stuck in his mouth. In flagrant denial of New York State’s smoking ban as well as the parking regulations of the airport, he pulled his bike right up to the curb, parked it quite illegally, and hopped off to check out the redhead he was waiting for.

“Jeannie!” he called out to her, both with his voice and his mind.

In crowded quarters, the minds of others often became a low buzzing. She’d been able to tune them out easily enough over the years, to the point where she almost barely noticed it. What she heard with her ears and with her mind were synchronous. With those she was close to, their minds were much easier to pick out, however.

But there were also some minds that weren’t so easy. Had he not spoken up, Jean wouldn’t have noticed him. The mental ‘whistle’ helped as well. She looked toward the sound, her thoughtful expression turning into a broad smile as she walked toward him.

“Well hi there, stranger,” she said, putting down her luggage to try to give him a hug. “Long time, no see.”

She would, for the moment, ignore the fact that the airline employees and staff were now very aware of Logan’s parking spot and were on their way. They had a couple of minutes.

Logan’s return hug might have been strong enough to bend adamantium itself. “Good to see you.” he said with a glint in his eye that could have meant anything at all. “Saddle up, Red.” he said, helping her get her stuff into his saddlebags without folding it or mutilating it too too badly. Somehow, in near-blatant violation of the laws of space time, he got her stuff stowed. “Want to head straight back, or can a guy buy you a beer first?” he asked her with a cocky grin.

Jean’s eyes widened a bit when Logan hugged her, something between a cough and a laugh escaping her lips. “Wow, still got quite a grip,” she said. She knew the look, caught the glance, that hint of something.

As long as it reminded just a hint she’d let it slide. They were two old friends catching up, nothing more. Though Scott was thousands of miles away, her heart was still with him.

While he got to work on her luggage, Jean cocked her head to the side, marvelling at the feat. Her eyes trailed toward the door just before a small cadre of security guards stepped through the pair of sliding doors.

Glancing back toward him, she grinned.

“I don’t know. Is Harry’s still intact?”

“Better be.” he said with a hint of growl. “Someone trashes my favorite watering-hole, I’m gonna be pissed.” Logan too had seen the guards, which is why he’d climbed onto his bike and gunned the engine. “Time to go.” he told his passenger, waiting for her to take the bitch-seat and wrap her arms around him.

Once she’d settled her long cool frame and settled in, he goosed the throttle and the bike responded with a willing roar.

Jean climbed on the back of the bike, arms closing around his waist. She could smell the lingering scent of cigar smoke the most, mingling with a touch of an earlier serving of liquor, most likely beer, and musk.

“Logan,” she said.

“Lose the cigar, please?” While she knew his love of tobacco, she didn’t want the smoke wafting in her face while they were riding down the highway.

As they took off, Jean’s hair billowed behind her like a flickering flame, and she leaned in against his back to get the wind out of her face.

Anyone else, he would have ignored that request or even blown smoke back in their face. But this was Jeannie so he took his hands off the handlebars temporarily and ground out his smoke against his palm. He winced involuntarily as his flesh burned, but as always his healing factor took care of the damage within seconds. “So how was California?” he asked his passenger once he got his hands safely back on the handlebars.

Another scent, this one of burning flesh, wafted up, and Jean’s nose curled. Though she was quite aware of his healing factor, the smell was something that was hard to get used to.

“Thanks,” she said.

Her eyes flickered toward the city passing by as they made their way toward Westchester county. It would be a long drive for some, but for Logan...well, she was glad she didn’t scare easily. Evel Kineval would be proud.

“It was...sunny,” she said, smiling. “Bathing suit season. I’m sure you’d approve.”

Logan made an approving growl at that notion. At that moment he was very glad his mind was fairly hard to read casually, because he was rapidly getting lost in the mental vision of Jean in something really very, very tiny. He blinked the image away, hoping his eyes weren’t crossing. And while he hated to ask, it kinda needed to be said, so ... “How’s Scott?” he asked, hoping to keep his voice casual.

It didn’t take a telepath to know what he was thinking. The grunt said it all. Grinning faintly, Jean shook her head. “Yeah. Let’s focus on the road, Speedy,” she said.

“Not all of us can heal like you do.” It was her own fault for mentioning it. She probably shouldn’t have gone there.

Her grin faded to a calmer expression, and she nodded a little. “He’s good. He’s staying at the Annex until they can function without him. They’re stable but they can’t make it on their own, not yet.”

Logan grunted acknowledgment to that as well. So he’d stayed behind and sent his wife on ahead. Typical Scott. “Things here have been up and down. Same old, same old.” he said with a shrug. “Win some, lose some. Kids are kids.” he added.

Jean nodded a little. “I heard...about what happened in Salem Center. The children...graduates... must be shaken up,” she said. Sometimes she found herself slipping into the word ‘children,’ even if many of them were still considered adults.

Nevertheless, in this sort of situation her ‘mother hen’ tendencies were stirred. She wanted to make sure every one of the offending parties knew never to even think about raising a hand against them again.

“Any word on Nicholas?”

“Sharon’s out looking for him. Think the elf’s keepin’ an ear to the ground as well. So far, nothin’.” he admitted. “And speakin’ of kids, I got a great story for you once we get some beer goin’.” he said.

Laura.

The great complicating factor of his life.

“Mmm,” Jean said, nodding. “Missing is better than dead. Still,” she said. Depending on what happened, he might wish he were.

Her eyebrows then rose and she tilted her head with a smile. “And for the story to be ‘great’ coming from you, I can’t wait,” she said.

Logan, from her experience, had two settings: unaffected, unruffled, and uncaring (‘I don’t give a crap’ mode), or rage-filled maniac. The in-between was rare and interesting.

“You know me. Just another little wrinkle in the wreckage called my life.” he said with faked enthusiasm. He had to admit, it’d be a lot easier if he could just hate Laura and be done with it. But the kid was so earnest, so ... unlike him. And, unless he missed his guess, she was out messin’ around with the boys as well. Fine by him - he really didn’t care what she did, truthfully. He still had a hard time thinking of himself as “Pops” to anyone.

Pretty sure that made him a raging failure as a parent, but it’s also not like he ever asked for the title in the first place.

But anyway. Jeannie was back, which stirred up a whole shitstorm of stuff inside of him. He thought he’d dealt with it, put it aside, but seeing her, having her clinging to his back as they rode - it felt too damned right to him. And while he didn’t give too much of a flying fuck for Scott, she made her choice and he was gonna have to live with it, as much as he really wasn’t wanting to.

But then again, there was that whole fling with Bobby. Submerged personality his _ass_, there had to be somethin’ there to build on for whatever-it-was to act on it like that.

Maybe a guy like him had a shot after all.

“Surely it’s not all bad,” she said. Despite everything, Jean could be considered an optimist.

The sun had started to set as they drove, as rows of buildings turned into suburbs and dots of countryside. Jean watched the sky, listening to the beat of his heart as she rested her head against his back. After a few moments, after she caught herself, she sat up.

“You’re quiet,” she said. Unless he really projected, his mind had always been difficult. She didn’t try to listen to anyone, but having the rustling under the service was constant, a wild mixture of comforting and overwhelming at times. They were doors, lines up in rows, with screens that muted the sounds. But his mind was a steel door, and he usually had the key.

Logan grunted to that. “It’s good to see you again, Jeannie.” he told her quietly, just loudly enough to be heard over the wind and the purr of the bike’s engine. It wouldn’t be long now until they hit Harry’s and he could start plying Jean with booze. Maybe shoot a couple of games of pool, see if she still did that hi-look-down-my-shirt-please thing when she was lining up her shots.

Jean nodded. “You too,” she said. The problem with being around Logan was...being around Logan. Scott wasn’t there. It was something they had decided together, that she was needed more here than there, but she hadn’t anticipated Logan being right there, the first one she saw.

She hadn’t anticipated things to be this hard.

“Logan...I....” She swallowed. “I think maybe this should wait until another night. I’m pretty tired.”

Logan didn’t say anything right away. “All right.” he agreed, turning to head for the Mansion instead of heading for Harry’s. “But you still owe me a beer.” he said, trying to keep his voice light.

If he’d dealt with Jeannie and Scott and all that, why was it so flamin’ hard to just do what she wanted, take the girl home, and leave it at that? Why did he crave the way she smelled, the touch of her hand?

Why was it always so flamin’ difficult?

Jean nodded a little, a soft smile forming on her lips. “I do,” she said.

Closing her eyes, she tried to let her mind wander, to not think of now. She needed to call Scott when she got back. Give her hellos, her condolences, take in the shock of the new and the old.

And not think of Logan.

The remainder of the ride up to the Mansion was pretty uneventful. He pulled up to the front door, then killed the bike’s engines and put the kickstand down. “Here ya go.” he said, trying to sound chipper about it. “Want a hand with your bags?” he asked.

Jean looked up at the mansion as they rode past the gates. It hadn’t changed much. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Smoke billowing from the windows? Mutant tag football on the lawn? Instead it was the same as it always was, bathed in a soft orange glow. Familiar minds settled into focus, as well as a few new ones.

She climbed off the bike, still studying every bit of detail, every curve of molding, every leaf of every bush and blade of grass. Home.

“Yes, thank you,” she said.

Logan was able to handle her things relatively easily - he didn’t spend all that time tuning up his physique just because it looked good. He hefted her bags and then gestured for her to proceed into the Mansion. “Pretty sure Wheels’ll give you your old room back.” he said with a slight grin.

Jean laughed, tucking her sunglasses into her purse as she started for the door. She wondered if it still stuck a little when someone tried to open it. Scott had been meaning to put it on his to do list before they left but it had been forgotten in the rush.

“That’s good. Wouldn’t want to have to start a fight to get it back,” she said, smiling.

“Always enjoyed the view.”

There was a comment bubbling in the scarred twisty mass of Logan’s brains about views and the appreciation thereof, but he not only bit it back, he buried it almost as fast as it had formed. “Shit, I could probably sell tickets if you did start a fight with whoever had your room.” he said teasingly. “One night only, Jean Grey gets her fight on.” he said with a grin. “First come, first served.”

Jean pulled open the door, stepping inside. It still stuck, and she had to give it a bit of a tug. She glanced over her shoulder. “It’d be a short fight. Wouldn’t be much to watch,” she said, the slightest twinkle in her eyes.

“Jean Grey-Summers wins by knockout.”

She slipped the last bit in for casual correction. He made small pushes, their usual round of back and forth, but the marked distance of the last few years had seemed to heighten the tension. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.

“Undisputed.” he said with a grin that never seemed to make its way to his eyes. Then he set foot in her room and dropped her things relatively gently onto the bed. “There ya go.” he said to her, once her things were safely in place for her to unpack at her leisure. “Think you’ll be stickin’ around for long?” he asked.

Jean studied him a simple moment, withdrew a soft breath, then opened the door.

Walking over to the curtains, she pulled them back, giving her the view of the garden she’d missed.

“Thank you,” she said, turning around. Falling silent for a few moments at the question, she nodded.

“I think so. No travel plans for the immediate future.” Foreseen ones, anyway.

“Medlab probably misses you. Should check in once you’ve rested up.” he offered by way of advice. And despite all this time, he couldn’t help but feel just that little stab of hate for the word “lab”. “It’s good seein’ you again, Red. Your schedule frees up, come find me. We’ll go have that beer, shoot some pool.” he said with a grin just this side of salacious.

Jean nodded. “That was my plan,” she said. It was hard to stay away from the Medlab, actually. She wanted to see if Hank and Amelia had moved things around in her absence. They all had their own particulars in the way things were run and set up.

“Aching to get your ass kicked, are you?” she said, smiling.

“I’d be happy to oblige.”

“You are _so_ on.” he said with a truly disturbingly feral grin. “Anytime you want to come take a shot at me, I’d be happy to oblige ya.” he said, somehow managing to insinuate any number of things. “Should let you get your rest. G’night, Red.” he said as he moved to exit her chamber.

Jean cocked her head to the side, not frightened by him in the slightest. She merely smiled, then gave him the universal ‘bring it on,’ gesture with her hand. Sometimes she could get competitive. And even though she caught the possibilities of what his statement might infer, again, sometimes she let it slide.

Nodding to Logan, she opened her bag. “Good night,” she said.

Logan grinned to himself as he left Jean’s quarters. Oh yeah. Life had just become very, very complicated. No Scott in sight, which means maybe - just maybe - she’d unmade the choice she made. And a guy might still have a shot.

Of course, maybe he was completely delusional and full of shit.