Jean, Clarice, Scott: Perspectives (Backdated)

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Scott and Jean talk to Clarice about what happened on the Attica mission. Ideologies are challenged. Jean oversteps.



Jean hadn't visited the sunroom much since she got here. In fact, she'd only seen it once on the tour when Scott suggested they meet here. Now here she was, sitting in a chair, reading a magazine someone had left on the table while she and Scott waited for Clarice to show up. She felt like they were parents talking to their kid about discovering their marijuana stash or something. This sort of conversation definitely felt not normal. Most people talked about bills or parties, or drinking, or relationships, not their disapproval that someone maimed someone.

She wasn't sure how this was going to go. Either way she expected a few bumps along the way. But if she was going to be part of this team, if she decided that, then she needed to be there for the people in it.

"I think I've read this same paragraph 15 times already," she murmured.

"You're way too tense." Scott advised from his seat under one of the lamps. It had been way too long since he'd taken the time to just come in here and relax. He'd forgotten how good it made him feel. "If you get tense you'll just keep playing things through in your head and get worked up and then she'll pick up on it too and then get defensive and worried herself." That was the situation that Scott was hoping to avoid, everyone getting defensive and nothing actually being accomplished, or worse the situations actually getting worse.

Jean glanced up, not quite realizing she said that out loud, then nodded. "Sorry, I just haven't really done this before," she said. It was one thing to tell a patient their prognosis, but another to talk to someone about destructive behavior, and then continue to be around them. In the hospital patients left. She didn't see them again. Here, she had to, and then work with them in the future, fighting terrorists.

"You've never had to talk to a friend or stage an intervention before?" Scott asked in surprise. "I thought everyone had to deal with something like this at one point or the other in their lives. It's really nothing like they show on TV or the movies, real life tends to be less dramatic." Although at the mansion who could tell how things would go.

Less dramatic? Wow, he had been there awhile, hadn't he? "'Hey, you cut off a guy's thumb! Perhaps we should talk about this.' usually doesn't come up as a regular topic of conversation with my friends, no," she said, closing the magazine.

It may have been normal to him but it was new to her. Even with her time with X-Corps. They were like the red cross, and being in the X-Men was a bit like the army or the marines. She shook her head. "I think it's just going to be an adjustment period for everyone. And maybe that'll help bring us together."

She smiled. "I'm glad you're here, though. Thanks."

"It's no problem, I'd like to deal with this and talk to Clarice before something worse happens," Scott admitted. "Thanks for letting me know what had happened."

Jean nodded. "You're welcome." She could hear Clarice's footsteps coming toward the sunroom. She smiled again.

"Here we go."

Entering the sunroom, Clarice thought it odd that Scott would request a meeting here, but it was nicer than his office. Daylight was nice when you worked in the medlab without windows. Seeing Jean, she became really nervous. This was not a good sign right now. "What's going on?" she asked, getting the feeling that this wasn't social.

Jean caught the deer in the headlights look but remained calm."I was worried about what happened on the mission, when you engaged Scorcher," she said.

"Mr. Summers and I feel like...it was an extreme reaction to the stress you went through on M-Day and...we thought we should talk about it, since we're all going to be working together."

Scott closed his eyes and sighed, you could tell Jean was uncomfortable by how formal she was still being, "Basically you sliced his fingers off when you really didn't need to," he clarified for Clarice, "What happened?"

"We were engaged with a convicted criminal with pyro abilities," Clarice explained, "He threatened to rape and torture us, then burn us alive. Taking his finger was meant to be incapacitating, it can be reattached without complication at any ER and using my powers meant it was done cleanly, evenly, and even sanitarily at long range and without pain other than the shock following it. It is also unlikely that an injury like that would kill him even if the finger wasn't reattached and he only had field dressing. It was a tactical decision made in the heat and one I've used in the past without commentary," she glanced at Jean for a moment, before returning her gaze to Scott. "X-Men don't kill and we don't torture. But we also don't sing kumbayah when stopping dangerous people. We get the job done."

Jean met Clarice's eyes, but didn't flinch. "We were trying to subdue him and diffuse the situation. Stopping the riot, that was the job. But he was already clearly unstable and violent...did you expect him to become LESS violent with his finger missing? You showed him that you were willing to not just draw blood but to remove body parts just because he yelled out obscene threats. Up until that point he hadn't done anything. You know X-Men don't kill, but he doesn't. It upped the stakes considerably, putting everyone at unnecessary risk, because suddenly for all he knows he's fighting to stay alive, not to just get away," Jean said. She shook her head.

"I'm not saying he's innocent. He was a monster. But I'm guessing there were other things you could have done to diffuse the situation. But that didn't happen. And it saddles us with a reputation I don't think we want, especially after M-Day. Especially if we want to keep doing what we do. For all we know the Avengers could've seen what happened, or the public if this happens again.. And suddenly we're a threat. It shows them that mutants really are something to fear." Jean's face softened, but a sense of resolve remained in her eyes.

"We have these principles for a reason. Or...that was what I thought when I joined this team. But principles only go so far if they aren't put to practice. We can say we're fighting for peace and equality, but we have to DO that through our actions as well. We have to show the world that we're better, that we're worth believing in."

"We are a threat," Scott interjected, "You were there when we fought the Avengers, they've already judged us to be a threat to be dealt with. They judged us before we met them and all of mutant-kind along with us. I can't blame them after we literally blew up in their faces but," Scott shook his head, "you saw how they attacked us without even trying to understand the situation," the X-man still couldn't believe that he had gone head to head with the real Thor.

"If that's what we're going to be facing then we need to be prepared to protect ourselves. You're both right, our principles are important, and we don't kill, we also use the least amount of force necessary in any engagement but we get the job done. Preferably without maiming people, but in the end, protecting our team and any innocents around is the most important thing. The world out there," Scott jerked his head at the door, "isn't a place that believes in us anymore, and I'm not ready to see anyone else die."

Good to know that Scott wasn't losing his brains everywhere with everything. She liked that in a leader. She did not appreciate Jean going over her head to Scott over this though without coming to her first. She also did not appreciate someone on their first mission preaching ideals and philosophy at her without experience. "Is that all?" she asked Scott. "I need to go train."

Jean's eyes lowered when Scott spoke and Clarice's jaw set as she glared at her like she was the enemy. She realized, like a slap to the face, that she'd messed up. Again. After a certain amount of times there should be a medal or award for most consecutive screw ups or something. Like a statue with a foot shoved in a person's mouth she could put on her mantle and display as a reminder when she left for the day to not fuck it up. God, she felt like a giant, presumptuous bitch.

She looked up. "Clarice, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to come off as judgmental," she said with honesty.

"I'm just trying to understand this. It's clear I went the wrong way with doing that, though. I should've spoken to you first. We are a team, and I don't want you to think you can't rely on me, just as much as I don't want to think I can't rely on you. That's all I wanted to say, to let you know where I stand on this matter. But at the end of the day, we are still a team. Again, I'm sorry."

"Next time, come to me directly," Clarice stated, still angry. She wasn't going to...oh yes she was. Screw it. "I know where you're coming from and you mean well, I get that. The thing is though, I've been doing this a lot longer than you and I have a lot more experience in the field and in the heat both as a fighter and a medic. Trust me to know what I'm doing," she caught herself at least before she said something she really wouldn't regret. Turning, she headed out.

"You're not wrong," Scott said quietly, "This place, it was founded on Charles ideals, but those were ideals for a different time, we were on the way to mutants overtaking the rest of humanity. We were fighting for the soul of the future, equality or supremacy, those were our choices. But now," Scott shook his head, "the future looks very different. It's not a matter of what we allow the future to look like, we're fighting for survival. Those ideals, they've still important, but we need to figure out how to apply them to our new situation. It isn't, it can't be the same as it was. But it we can use them to set an example for this new age. That's our responsibility, but it's not an easy or light burden."

With that Scott nodded at Jean and walked out of the sun room, leaving the redhead alone with her thoughts.