Jean and Warren: Post Haste (Backdated)

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

After Vanessa's rescue and return to the mansion Warren runs into Jean in the kitchen in the late hours of the night.



2 am. A skittering and a rustling drifted out of the kitchen. The lights were on. The culprit had a head of red hair, though upon first glance she was almost hidden in plain sight.

Warren hadn't been sleeping all that much, and he found it far easy to wander the mansion when most people were asleep. He caught the noise from the kitchen and wandered in, his gaze moving until he found the floating doctor. "Looking for beer left behind by Logan?"

"Logan, leave behind beer? A statistical impossibility," Jean said distractedly. A box of ginger snaps fell out and she caught it midway in mid air.

"Oops."

"He might have forgotten about it." He tilted her head, looking up at her. "All that effort for a box of ginger snaps?"

"Not beer," Jean said, poking her head out from behind the cupboard door. The ginger snaps floated back up into her hand and she neatly put them back into the cupboard.

"Coffee, actually."

"That's not where the coffee is kept," Warren said with a little bit of a frown. "Come down, I'll make you some."

"It isn't?" Jean said. She tilted her head. "So that's why there are cobwebs up here."

Jean slowly floated down to the ground, rubbing her eyes.

"Thank you. You are very much the lifesaver." Her smile returned softly.

"In more ways than one."

He just smiled a little and shrugged, moving into the kitchen properly so he could go about making coffee for Jean. It was one of the few things that he could do properly. "It's just coffee."

Jean leaned against the counter. "Yes, in the cup it is just coffee, but in the body it is the spark of life," she said. She tilted her head. Something was off. Even when groggy she knew something was off.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine," he replied with another shrug, starting to wrestle with Hank's coffee machine. He hadn't spent enough time at the mansion to fully learn his way around it.

The coffee machine started to make a series of beeping noises, a couple of lights flashed. A mixture of water, something yellow, and something red squirted into the coffee mug.

"I think the coffee maker might be inclined to disagree with you," Jean said. She slowly approached, gently putting her hand on Warren's shoulder.

"Hey, look at me."

He squinted at the liquid in the cup, then turned to look at Jean. He wasn't at all his usual smiling, charming self, or even the bundle of tension he'd been when they were looking for Vanessa. It was almost as all of his usual energy had just faded away, and all there was left was a husk.

After staring at him for a couple of moments, Jean wrapped her arms around him tightly and stayed that way for awhile.

A clock on the wall marked the time by quietly ticking the seconds away and the wind brushed against the windows, making the tree limbs scratch against the glass, like a cat wanting to be let in.

It took Warren a few long moments before he wrapped his arms around Jean, and a few more before he rested his head against hers. It was comforting, in a distant sort of way. Warren knew he should be feeling something, but all he was was numb.

"You burn...so hard, so bright, for so long...Eventually you run out of things to burn," Jean said softly.

"And that's okay. Just know that. You need time for you now. Take it. Feel what you feel."

"That's the thing," Warren said quietly. "I don't feel anything. I'm just... numb."

"It'll come back," Jean said.

"You've been through a lot. And now that its over, and she's safe...." She smiled, gentle but wry. "Your brain kind of went poof. It needs to reboot."

"Maybe," Warren replied. He pulled away from Jean a little, looking down at her. "What about you? How are you holding up?"

Jean looked down. It was her turn to shrug. She gave him a tired smile. "I'm okay. I'm here."

Operating in doctor mode.They taught you things in medical school, how to behave around patients and their families. How to react. Saving lives required a relative amount of detachment. The only thing she got bad marks on was having too good of a bedside manner. Getting too involved. When the place you practiced medicine was full of your friends and students, it was hard not to.

Warren tilted his head, his expression doubtful. She was about okay as he was, and she was clearly exhausted. "I'm taking back my offer of coffee. You need to sleep. Let Hank and Amelia keep an eye on Vanessa for awhile."

Jean opened her mouth to protest, then her shoulders sagged, and she held her hands up in defeat. "Okay, you win. But you need sleep too. She's going to need you when she wakes up. You know how surly she can get."

Leaning in, she gave him one last lingering hug, then kissed him on the cheek.

"Good night."

Warren returned the hug more warmly this time, squeezing her slightly before she drew away. "She'll need you too, doc. So you take care of yourself as well." Or Warren would take it upon himself to make sure she does.

Glancing over her shoulder, Jean smiled. "As a friend, you mean?" She already had her as a doctor.

Warren nodded. "After what she must have been through... she's going to need all of us. There's no point in you killing yourself to wake her up, when that's going to be the easy part. Relatively speaking."

"I don't want to jinx it," Jean said, resting her hand on the doorway. "When she's awake, I'll take a break."

Most things deemed 'easy' usually turned out anything but.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Warren said with a little bit of a smile.

"I was going to say the same for you," Jean said, shrugging as she returned his smile. "Guess we'll both have something to look forward to."

"We'll see," Warren shrugged a little. Vanessa was going to need their support when she woke up. Who knows what sort of pieces she would be in after such a horrific time.

The smile lingered as Jean turned to leave.

"Good night, Warren."