Jean & Jean-Paul | Saturday Evening

[x-quebecois.livejournal.com]

Jean-Paul calls Jean to check on Vanessa's status more directly, then begins the long trek back to the mansion from Denmark.


Jean-Paul rang off after leaving his last voicemail to Adrienne and then found Jean's number in his contacts list and dialed. As it rang, he continued shoving clothing and various other important items into a backpack. He'd arranged to have everything else he'd accumulated over the last few months shipped back to his apartment in District X.

Vanessa's heart monitor beeped in the background as Jean rubbed her eyes, staring at the latest batch of x-rays. The bones on her ribs had been sawed into with surgical precision. Jean closed her eyes, shaking her head, and leaned back into her chair covering her face with her hands when the phone rang, causing her to jump. Her eyebrow rose at the caller ID.

"Hello?" she said.

"Forgive me for being abrupt," Jean-Paul said, pausing for just a moment to make sure he'd taken everything from his nightstand. "But please, how is she?"

His was a voice Jean hadn't expected to hear but the moment she heard it knew it'd make perfect sense. Standing, Jean walked out of the room and into the small hallway adjacent to it, close enough to where she could still see her patient.

"No forgiveness needed," Jean said, resting her forehead against the wall as she let out a breath.

"She's...alive. She'll make it. But she needs a lot of time to heal. She's been through a lot."

"I understand that you have been through much, also, and I would like to know you are well, oui?" It was a less immediate concern, of course, since Jean could pick up the phone and talk to him, but it was still there.

Jean turned over, staring up at the ceiling. She forgot he hadn't been there either. It suddenly occurred to her Vanessa barely had a few days between coming out of one nightmare and going right into another one.

"I'm alive too."

"Oui," Jean-Paul said, nodding though he knew she had no way of knowing. "What can you tell me, mon ami?" He didn't specify whether he was asking about her ordeal or Vanessa's condition. He wasn't going to demand details she couldn't give, but at this point, he'd take anything he could get.

Jean's shoes clicked along the floor as she walked, the only sound for a few moments.

"Bad men were bad men." That seemed appropriate for both situations, didn't it?

"I did not have access to a computer," he said, closing his eyes briefly before shaking his head and picking up his bag. He shrugged it on and walked to the window, swinging it wide and stepping it up onto the sill. It was a blanket sort of apology, mostly unspoken but completely sincere. "She will wake up, oui?"

"There are a good handful of people that would have something to say about it if she didn't," Jean said, smiling faintly. She shook her head.

"She will. She's a fighter. Most people would've died already. But she..." Jean closed her eyes.

"It looks like the men who took her were experimenting on her. They call themselves New Son. Warren and Bishop had been on Vanessa's trail for months. They finally found her in Prague."

"New Son?" The name rang an odd bell in the back of his mind, but Jean-Paul ignored it for the moment and stepped into thin air, flying upward and west. "Prague - she was close." He hadn't known, he'd assumed his contact with his coworkers would have been more vocal about this sort of thing, but really - no. Who would have thought this could happen? Who would have anticipated this? "Marde - I am flying now, I will be there in a few hours."

"You're literally flying here? Where are you?" Jean said. She could hear the wind billowing across the receiver.

"Oui," Jean-Paul said. "I am leaving Denmark now. It will be many hours."

"Whoa, wait....can your powers take the non-stop strain? I know you want to be here but crashing in the middle of the Atlantic if you had a burnout would be very bad," Jean said.

"She'll still be here when you get here. I don't think she'll be waking up for awhile."

"I have done this before, Jean," Jean-Paul said, flying higher and higher, watching the city lights shrink beneath him. "It is no trouble, oui?" Which wasn't strictly true, he'd be exhausted when he got there and Jean probably knew that, but he wasn't concerned with that for the moment. "I will be there as soon as I can."

Jean sighed. "Jean-Paul please. I don't...I don't want someone else to worry about," she said. Her voice dropped, along with her chin.

"I can't. There are already too many," she said softly.

Physically, she worried for Vanessa, Mentally, she worried for Adrienne, for Warren, Bishop, Angelo, and the rest. She didn't want to have to wonder, or wait for a call if he pushed himself too hard.

"I will be fine," Jean-Paul said. "And now I am going to ring off. The phone, it will not be on as I fly. The reception is not so good over the Atlantic."

Rubbing her forehead, Jean closed her eyes. "Fine," she said.

"Be careful."

Hey, irritation. She hadn't felt that one in awhile.

"Adieu," Jean-Paul said, ending the call and then turning the phone off. He put on speed, heading westward.