Wanda and Jean, back together again (Backdated)

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda's out shopping when she spots a familiar face and she and Jean have an unexpected reunion


The boots were singing her name.  Loudly.  With a Greek chorus.  And drowning out the lone sobbing of her wallet.  Wanda tilted the boot slightly and thought about how they would fit with the rest of her wardrobe.  The salesgirl next to her was telling her about a sale and she was listening, really, but a flash of red caught her eye and she instinctively looked up. It couldn't be.  The last time she'd seen that redhead, it had been in France a number of months ago.


No, it simply couldn't be... "Jean!"


Wanda shrieked in delight when the other woman turned and she could clearly see who it was.  Dropping the boot back in the hands of the bewildered worker, she ducked around the display and threw her arms wide open for a hug.


Since she was going to be staying for awhile, Jean had taken it upon herself to explore the town. It was definitely smaller than Manhattan, but not enough to where she felt claustrophobic. It was quaint, charming, in a Mayberry sort of way.


The yell got her attention, and it was from a voice she never thought she'd hear. But since Charles had invited all the X-Teams to live there, she had wondered when Wanda might arrive.


"Louise!" Jean said, closing the distance in impressive time as she practically tackled the other woman, closing her arms around her in a bear hug.


"I was hoping I'd see you!"


The bear hug was impressive considering both Wanda and Jean's shared height and she returned the hug with equal force..  "Thelma, darling, you are a sight for sore eyes."  Pulling back, she looked her friend up and down and then quirked an eyebrow.  "Perhaps I should travel back in time and kick myself but I hadn't actually considered that you'd be coming here.  Too busy gallivanting all over Europe.  But I have to admit, the surprise was wonderful!"


"I've been back in the states for over a month, actually," Jean admitted. If she had known she would have given her a call long before that.


"I was visiting Sara, Paul, and the twins. Then I got the call about Charles starting things back up and asking everyone to live there. It's...surprisingly easier to manage than I thought. I figured I'd feel bothered by all the people but I'm not. Not yet, anyway."


She draped her arm over her shoulder.


"So, I saw this fabulous coffee shop down the street. Would you like to grab a cup and catch up?"


The boots could wait and if someone else bought them, there'd be other boots.  Nothing outside of an emergency would convince her that anywhere else was more important.  Wanda draped her arm around Jean's waist and led the way out the store.  "I would love that," she said.  "The amount of catching up we have is ... gigantic." The world had gone mad over a very few small days.  Coffee with an old friend felt like a bit of desperately needed normalcy.


Jean grinned. "As it should be," she said, the two walking down the street like they owned it. She always felt a bit taller around Wanda, figuratively that is. She felt like her second sister.


"So I guess I'm staying here for awhile. The Professor wants X-Corps to be based out of the mansion, but Angelo's put it temporarily on hiatus. So I'm thinking of moonlighting as an X-Man, despite the vaguely sexist name."


She snorted in laughter at that.  "Any particular reason for the hiatus?" Wanda asked, leaning against Jean and taking a moment to enjoy the sunny if cold day.  "Besides the fact that everything is a mess, that is.  It seems the rest of the teams are trying to put the pieces back together."  It wasn't a bad thing to sit back and wait, though, to see where some of the pieces fell.  It hadn't even been a month yet.


"There aren't that many people left to rescue," Jean said quietly. Mutants, that is. "Everyone's gone deeper into hiding. Cerebro's been dismantled. Angelo has to build back up our contact list. It was pretty much decimated."


She slipped her hands into her pockets. "Despite everything, I think I like it here. It feels...comfortable, y'know? I don't know why."


"It's a good place," Wanda said, just as quietly.  "For all that it has faults, it's home.  We're all trying to rebuild, so I completely feel for Angelo.  It seems over half of our network disappeared on us, either because they wanted to or because something happened.  People we were in contact for years, just -"  She snapped her fingers.  "Gone.  I do not scare easily but I will admit that this whole thing has me scared to death."


Jean shook her head. "I know," she said as they neared the coffee shop. People mulled about, going though their day as usual. "It doesn't feel real. I keep thinking one day I'll wake up and it'll just have been some horrible joke."


"Or a mass hallucination.  I could probably handle one of those."  They let a small group of people exit before Wanda grabbed the door and they ducked through.  She switched tracks for a moment.  "I believe you treated me the last time we saw each other.  Would you like your regular or something fancy this time?"


"Everyone just happened to have gone on vacation at the same time," Jean said. She eyed the menu, then laughed.


"I didn't know we were keeping score but...um...fancy, maybe? In honor of our new accommodations? Which suite is yours by the way? I'm hoping we're close."


Fancy it was.  Wanda set about ordering the fanciest coffees she could without being completely ridiculous about it and bought a few pastries as well on top of it.  "Second story, one of the two bedroom suites," she said while they waited and she kept a sharp eye on the table in the corner.  "Which comes as a surprise to no one because of course I needed a library and an office."


"Two bedrooms? Hmmm." Jean said thoughtfully with a widening grin. "I haven't fully unpacked yet. I don't have a lot of stuff to really unpack. Most of my knick knacks are in storage at my parents' house. I told them I'd be living here for awhile, though, so they offered to ship it to me. And then they said they wanted to visit."


"If you snag a room with two bedrooms, you too can have room for your various knick knacks," Wanda said with a grin.  "And you should certainly make sure we end up on the same floor.  It will make stumbling back from our wine nights so much easier."


Jean laughed. "I might try to be gracious and leave that for people who have roommates. I'm just by myself. I don't have that much stuff," she admitted. Her job meant not holding onto much. "Maybe I can store some stuff in your area?" she teased with a grin.


"But I will certainly angle for the 2nd floor. I miss wine night very much. We should have one soon."


Grabbing their drinks, she handed over Jean's so she could gather up the bags of pastries before they went to the still thankfully empty table.  "Good luck trying to find room," Wanda snorted as they got settled.  "The place is a living breathing library, completely with ridiculously comfortable furniture.  I may have an empty shelf but do not hold out hope, they will not be empty for long."


Wanda's younger self would have been appalled at the idea of having so much stuff.  What good was all of that junk if you could not throw it in a bag and leave whenever you wanted?  Her current self seemed rather pleased with the idea.


Jean took a sip, pausing a moment to savor it with a quiet 'mmm.' She then took a seat, cupping the plastic cup with her hands, trying to steal its warmth. She laughed.


"Sounds like a place I'd love to visit. I do need an office, though. Maybe Charles will let me take one of the two bedroom ones....But I wish I could have one in the medlab if I had to choose. God, you should see it, Louise...It's like the movie Metropolis and Minority Report had a baby. I would sleep there if I could."


"Thelma, I will happily leave you and Cecilia to fondle the MedLab," she laughed.   The pastries Wanda had purchased were a mixed bag featuring a few chocolate and some fruit filled ones.  She thought about it for a moment and then decided it was a chocolate kind of day and pulled one of them closer to her.  "Honestly, after you wake up there a few times, it starts to lose it's appeal if you are not of the doctor variety.  I am, though, absolutely thrilled that you'll be staying around."


Falling silent for a few moments, Jean nodded decisively. "I am starting to be too," she said with a smile, then leaned back.


"Some people like to work on cars. I like to work on people. In a strictly completely helpful and not creepy at all way," she added quickly. She eyed what appeared to be a cherry cream cheese pastry and immediately snatched it up.


"What I mean is...I like to help heal people. I know the medlab's not for everyone. Just like I'm not falling all over myself about the motor pool," she said, tearing off a piece of pastry to savor.


"Adrienne and I had this conversation before. Have you met her yet?"


"Adrienne Frost?" Wanda responded, nodding.  "She's a good person and thanks to my work, I know both Frost sisters. Adrienne is dating Garrison and I know him quite well, too."  Another sip of her drink let her know that it was no longer the temperature of the sun.  "And I completely understand.  It is a relief to find yourself in a place where you feel useful.  Another type of home."


"Haven't met Garrison yet but I've heard the name, " Jean said. She couldn't remember if Adrienne had said it or someone else.


"Yeah...though with X-Corp's future up in the air I'm mostly in a holding pattern. We can't exactly go try to help mutants with everyone pretty much gunning for them." This verbalized reality made Jean finish off the rest of her pastry. It made her feel better for about 10 seconds.


Wanda could sympathize.  The future had never been certain but now it was even worse.  Whatever plans or goals teams might have had were being tested or changed in an attempt to keep up.  "There are other ways of helping," she said, voice soft but loud enough for Jean to hear.  "It might not be the same way you were doing it before but you're too useful to be in a holding pattern for long."


She swept the loose crumbs in front of her into her a small mound on a napkin as she tried to think through her thoughts.  "I think being here will be good for you and," Wanda flashed her a grin, "not just because we can have wine nights without needing a flight.  There's going to be a lot of work to do in the days to come and a lot of it is coming our way."


"What could I do?" Jean said. "I'm not a detective. I'm definitely not a spy. I'm not a teenager. And I haven't fought any terrorists, or much of anything really. I've mostly been discretely ferrying people across borders or saving people from rock slides."


She couldn't help it. Wanda stared at her for a long few moments before responding, "Are you joking? You're not! Jean, do you realize how valuable you are right now? You're a free agent with contacts and one with, ah, useful skills, yes?" Wanda wiggled her fingers at her friend in an attempt to say without saying 'mutant abilities'. It mostly looked like she was doing jazz hands but she figured Jean would get it. "Plus your medical skills will prove invaluable, no matter what you end up doing. You have time to decide what direction you want to go in - just know you will be an invaluable addition no matter what you end up doing."


Jean smirked. "You make it sound like I'm a football player in line for the NFL draft," she said. She rested her chin in her hands thoughtfully.


"But, yeah, that's true. I do have time. And I hope I'll be invaluable."


"You will be. Oh, there'll be a learning curve but any team will welcome you with open arms. You'll just need to do a bit of research to see where you want to go." Wanda waved a pastry around, scattering crumbs across the table. "But you have time! And until you decide, we can have wine parties and go shoe shopping together."


Jean grinned, wagging her eyebrows. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," she said, plucking another pastry from the box.


"I have been thinking about the X-Men. The idea of helping to fight terrorism and pretty much everything else sounds....fulfilling. Not to mention I hear they do occasionally help other...people like X-Corps does, or did."


"They do good work," Wanda agreed, remembering the years when she put on the leathers herself. She still did good works just ... in a completely different. And with sadly less leather. "You can always moonlight? See how they operate, see if you enjoy it? It is not like you need to sign your life away just yet!"


Falling silent for a moment, Jean tore off another bit from the pastry and put it in her mouth to savor.


"Maybe," she allowed. "I guess we'll just have to see how it goes." Wanda poked her with a croissant. "It will be fine. If you feel completely lost and need something to do, I always have some filing for you to do in my office." She immediately held up her hands to ward off any thrown pastries. "Not in the face!" she laughed.
Jean feigned indignance, putting her hand to her chest. "Damn it, man...I'm a doctor, not an administrative assistant!" she said.  She then eyed her, smirking.


"It's cute how you thought I was going to waste a perfectly good pastry. Pastries are for eating. Now napkins...."  She picked up one of the unused napkins, rolling into a ball and tossing it at her.


Wanda laughed as it bounced off her hair and back onto the table. "Oh, I did miss you, Jean. I don't think life is going to be boring with you around for more than a weekend!"
Grinning, Jean leaned against Wanda. "I missed you too," she said.


"I'm glad we don't have to miss each other anymore."