Jean and Kurt: No Good Deed

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

After helping avert a potential tragedy, Kurt doesn't receive the thanks he deserves when his image inducer malfunctions. Jean helps him out and the two make their way back to her car, discussing the complexities of their existence.



It was a bright, sunny day in Salem Center, New York. In the downtown area, close to where downtown turned into residences, a curly brown-haired girl and her brother played outside their apartment. They were in the age where staying inside, especially during the summer, was impossible.

Their grandfather, in an effort to detach them from their iPads and cell phones for a little awhile, had bought them a few traditional toys. Some enjoyed them, some did not. The younger girl, Amber, shrieked as her brother, armed with a super soaker, fired at her relentlessly, and picked up a nearby ball, throwing it at him to get him to stop.

"Carter, I'm gonna tell mom if you don't stop!" she said.

"Geeze, it's just water!" Carter said with a grin as the ball bounced off him without him batting an eye. "Fraid you'll melt?"

Seeing just how thoroughly annoyed Amber was, Carter increased his attack. The girl flailed, and, attempting to get away, crossed into the street without looking.

What she didn't see was the midnight blue truck heading her way.

The slender blond man in his thirties sitting nearby, however, did. With a combination of running and teleporting, he was there just in time to sweep her out of the way, but not to avoid being clipped by the car himself.

Tires screeching, the truck skid to get out of the way and struck a nearby light pole before coming to a stop. The driver, a mechanic on his way home from work, climbed out of his car.

"Oh man, I didn't see her! I didn't see her! Is everyone--?" He stopped in his tracks.

The man was stunned, still holding loosely on to the girl as she wriggled out of his hands, and shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He hadn't noticed the way his appearance was - flickering.

Carter shot toward his sister. "AMBER!" he said as Amber, still reeling from what just happened, could only stare with confusion. Carter glanced over, startled at the sight.

"Whoa."

The driver, meanwhile, had other ideas, and reached into the back of his truck, grabbing a massive wrench. He stood between the two siblings and Kurt, clutching the wrench tightly.

"Stay back! I don't know what you are but you better get the hell away from them!" he shouted. He started to swing it at Kurt but he suddenly froze in place as a redhaired woman stepped into view.

Jean had been on her way to pick up some groceries when she came upon the commotion. She'd only saw the tail end of what happened, drawn by the abrupt flurry of panicked minds, but recognized a powderkeg when she saw one.

She offered a hand up to Kurt. "Are you alright?" she said gently.

He took it, pulling himself to his feet. "The girl was - the car..." A glance at her reassured him she was fine, and he looked back at Jean, then down at his hands and the malfunctioning image inducer. "I think perhaps we should leave quickly."

Jean followed Kurt's gaze toward the truck, then back to the girl as something came over her face before it melted away. She nodded. "Good idea. I need to do something first," she said.

She approached the man, meeting his eyes. The two stared at each other in silence for a few moments as Jean read his mind before finally speaking. "Shawn? Alright, listen to me. You were driving. A cat ran in front of your car and you swerved to get out of the way and hit a pole. You're a little bit rattled but everything's okay," she said, reorganizing the memories and rewriting them as she spoke.

With a blank expression, Shawn the Mechanic nodded, and then walked back over to his truck, putting in the wrench. He took a seat in the driver's side and sat there, waiting.

Turning to Carter and Amber, Jean smiled. "You were playing with the super soaker when you saw a man driving down the street. He almost hit a cat and ran into a pole instead. It was a little scary but everyone turned out alright. After this you're going to go back inside and tell your dad," she said.

Carter and Amber, now frozen like Shawn was, nodded as well, standing in wait as Jean made her way back to Kurt. She looked a little drained.

"Did you teleport here? I'm a little worried you might have a head injury. My car's near by. Would you like a ride?"

He'd watched all this with a neutral expression, understanding the necessity but not particularly liking it - or the drained expression on Jean's face now.

"Yes, that might be a better idea than trying to teleport. Things could go very badly."

"Wouldn't want you accidentally ending up on the moon," Jean said with a soft smile. She nodded back the direction she came, shifting the bags of groceries she'd all managed to carry on one arm, to a more even distribution.

"Car's this way. It's not far. We can take the back alleys to avoid any more angry villagers. I'd like to check you over once we get out of the public eye if that's alright, though," she said.

"Of course." He reached out in an offer to take some of her groceries, turning off the inducer with the other hand.

Considering a moment, Jean gave him a couple of the lighter items. She smiled. "Thanks." she said as they headed toward business area, making their way down one of the alleys between the rows of tiny shops. One of the places had set up a picnic table for its employees to eat lunch and, since it was well past lunch time to where no one would hopefully coming outside, Jean stopped in front of there.

"Here's a good spot," she said, setting down her bags on top of the table. She motioned to the bench. It wasn't ideal but she could do a more thorough check up at the mansion.

"Please have a seat. I have no lollipops with me for being a good patient but I do have a delicious selection of gum and/or breath mints," she said.

Kurt chuckled. "I will accept a breath mint. Are you all right?"

Jean smiled. "Breath mint it is," she said, reaching into her purse and presenting a tin of Altoids for him to take a mint from. She squinted, then smirked. "And I'm the doctor. I should be the one asking those questions," she said.

He took one and popped it in his mouth. "Yes, but I saw your face."

Falling silent a moment, Jean shook her head dismissively. "It's just a headache. I get them sometimes when I use my powers in a more advanced capacity....rewriting, wiping..." she said. She glanced away, her shoulders slumping a little as she let out a breath.

"I've been doing it a lot, lately," she said. And for someone who thought a person's thoughts were sacred, having to do what she had to do to ensure the people she lived with stay safe was a direct affront to those principles.

He looked at her, somewhere between sad and regret, but not condemning.

"I am sorry that you have had to."

Jean glanced down, brushing her hair behind her ears. "Me too. But..." She managed a faint smile. "You're safe, every one else's safe. That's the most important thing." It was what she kept telling herself.

She reached into her purse again, straightening herself a little as she pulled out a small flashlight and tried to change subjects. "The next most important thing is making sure you don't have a concussion from your heroic deed," she said, her smile widening.

"Where does it hurt?"

"I think I feel some bruises coming on", he said ruefully. "And I may have struck my head in the fall."

Not hard enough to cut, though.

Jean frowned. "That's what I suspected," she said, then held up the flashlight.

"I'd like to check your pupillary response. We can do a MRI back at the mansion if worse comes to worse but you're pretty alert and don't seem to have slurred speech or lost consciousness."

Kurt nodded, holding his head still.

"I do not feel anything terribly wrong, but better to check."

"Definitely a good sign," Jean nodded. "Hopefully all you'll have to do is take it easy for awhile and have some interesting bruises"

Reaching up, she gently tilted his head back and kept his eyelids open with her fingers as she shined the light in both eyes. When she was finished, a satisfied smile lit up her face.

"Normal response. So far so good," she said, clicking off the flashlight and putting it in her bag. "The rest I can do at the mansion. You up for moving again?"

She offered him her hand.

"Yes, I should think so." He took her hand and got up, a little stiffly. "...definitely there will be bruises."

Jean laughed. "That's why God invented aspirin," she said as the two headed back toward Jean's car. As promised it was a really short walk, but as they got there and started to round the corner she paused, grabbing Kurt's arm.

"Hold on...I sense a couple of people in the parking lot. We should probably wait until they leave."

Kurt nodded and stopped walking. "Not everybody takes it badly to see me, but more than enough do to have made me cautious."

Jean glanced over at Kurt, nodding herself, then glanced back to the parking lot to keep watch. "I'm sorry you have to go through that," she said quietly.

"I have known it all my life", he said with a simple shrug. "It has been worse since M-Day, that is all."

"Must be hard," Jean said Even if he had adjusted it was still an unfortunate reality that they lived in. Especially in these times.

"So were you...born with your physical mutation? It didn't manifest at puberty?"

"Only the teleportation came at puberty," he confirmed. "Which is a very good thing for my parents, it is difficult enough to keep track of toddlers when they must move around the usual way."

Jean laughed at the mental image of a 3 year old Kurt sitting on top of a fridge, triumphantly holding a cookie jar crossing her mind.

"Small blessings. How did you...go to school?" she said. She blinked, then shook her head.

"I'm sorry, if I'm being too forward with my questions I apologize."

"That is quite all right," he assured her. "You are hardly a stranger, we live under the same roof... and many others know the answers, there are no secrets. The answer is I did not go to school. My people are Romany, and they kept me very much sheltered as a child. I would be surprised if any outsider even knew I existed in my first years."

Jean smiled brightly. "You're Romany? My friend Wanda is as well. She lives at the mansion too....Wanda Maximoff? I don't know if you two have met."

"We have", Kurt said with a smile, and it was true of this version as well even if he didn't know her as well as he had.

"Several times in childhood, though I have yet to see her more than in passing at the mansion."

"Me too, sadly. Even through we live under the same roof now. I think work keeps us busy," Jean said. She glanced over, noticing the car leaving the parking lot.

"I think they're gone."

"All right." He started to move forward again. "Shall we continue this conversation in the car?"

Jean nodded. "Absolutely," she said with a smile, headed for a small black Toyota Camry.

"I've been telling myself I should buy my own car but I just haven't done it yet," she said, popping the trunk to put the bags inside.

"I promised to let one of my friends help me spend my money on a big ticket expense which, I've decided that should probably be the first start. It's nice to borrow from the motor pool but I want something that's mine, y'know?"

"What kind of car do you think you might get?" he asked lightly, putting what he was carrying in after them and moving to the passenger side.

"Not sure," Jean admitted, closing the trunk as she climbed inside the car. "Something fast, probably. I thought about asking Cyclops for ideas. I heard he used to teach mechanics back in the day?"

"He did," Kurt confirmed. "And I believe sometimes he still does, but we have such a small student body now..."

"Once they get old enough to drive they still need someone to teach them how not to run into a fence. Not that anyone in this car ever did that when they were younger...." Jean said innocently. She started up the car.

"Drivers ed and mechanics are still pretty important, I think."

"As they reach the age for driving, you are quite right. But it would be in small groups, each at their time," Kurt said.

Jean laughed. "Oh yeah. The set up is pretty nice for other things too," she said as they drove out of the parking lot, headed for home. "Having mentors to help out with extracurricular activities and their powers is pretty awesome. Being a teenager with strange abilities is a scary time so having that extra help means a lot."

"Especially for those whose parents are not as supportive as they might be", he said regretfully. "Young Roxy is one of the luckier ones, but the stories I have heard..."

"Like Quentin," Jean said quietly. "Or Xavin. I was there to help with both their pickups and...." She shook her head, frowning.

"You could tell how broken they were. How close they were to giving up. Life just kept...beating the crap out of them. If we hadn't come along I don't know what would have happened to them. I feel...so happy that we're making a difference but...on the other hand, it frustrates me so much that they're in that situation in the first place," she said.

"I wish there was more I could do to show them that the world is not always like that. Haller suggested I should...I dunno, try guest teaching some psionics classes or something but....I don't know. I've never done it before."

"That is no reason not to begin", Kurt said gently. "Everyone must start somewhere. And those children, and all the others helped over the years, will not be forced to give up now."

Jean turned to study Kurt for a moment or two, then glanced back toward the road.

"I want to believe that," she said, a small bit of doubt creeping into her voice.

"Jean", he said more persistently. "I have been in this line of work for more than ten years. I have seen some fights lost and some won, but there is, always and forever, hope."

Brushing her hair from her face, Jean shook her head, falling silent for a few moments. "Is there?" she said softly.

"Yes." It was absolutely certain. "Sometimes, as I say, we will lose battles. But one day the war will abate."

Clutching the wheel tightly, Jean swallowed. "I don't want to kill. I don't want to maim or break bones in the name of peace. I want to inspire. I want to help. But the things I'm afraid of doing, the things I've heard people have done...like Clarice, like some of the others...I understand them, I understand why...but the idea of doing it myself keeps me up at night."

"Clarice", he said quietly, "was perhaps fifteen when she came to us. The things she has seen... the life we live has made us all harder. If you wanted not to go into the field, that is your own choice."

Jean shoulders slumped and she sighed, shaking her head. "But I can't do that either," she said, covering her face with her hand.

"I know there are bad people in the world and they need to be stopped...and I know I can help. But I don't think that's all we should be doing...just reacting. There's got to be light somewhere."

"Things used to be better," he murmured. "I could go out into the world showing my true face. And they will be better again."

"But how?" Jean said. "We talk about spreading hope and working for peace but we're just...surviving, hiding in our castle, dragons poking at kings. I want to do more than just...fight evil. I want to show people that mutants aren't to be feared. We're just people."

"These things must come in their time. Let the memory of M-Day fade a little, let those of us who can go out in the community and use their powers in small and harmless ways."

Watching the road go by as she drove, Jean frowned, her shoulders heavy. "Maybe?" she said softly, not quite sure that would work at this point either. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry. Sometimes I get impatient and I let myself get carried away with unrealistic ideas. I didn't mean to get you involved with a philosophic discussion with someone who's almost a stranger."

"We should not be strangers," Kurt said with a smile. "And it is good to have these ideas, or else how could they ever be a reality?"

Jean echoed his smile, albeit softly. "We shouldn't," she said. She wasn't sure how to respond to his rhetorical question, though, because she wasn't sure how to begin.

"So. In the interests of that... did you have any more questions?" Kurt said.

Distracted, Jean glanced over, blinking. "Hmm? What kind of questions?" she said. She was still thinking about what they had just been talking about.

"Oh--you mean...about you?"

He grinned. "Yes, indeed. I will answer any you may have, and I am no stranger to causing curiosity."

Pausing, Jean fell silent for a moment or two, then grinned over at him. "Do you like pina coladas?"

He blinked at her, then started to laugh. "I must admit rum is not my favourite drink, but I would not turn one down."

Jean shrugged. "I'm a big fan of the unassuming fruity creamy drinks. They tend to knock me on my ass but it's a nice fall," she said. She laughed.

"I would ask now if you liked getting caught in the rain too but then you'd see through my joke."

"Ah, now... the rain is a different matter. Even if it makes my fur smell like a dog."

"I figured," Jean said, nodding. "I've met a few furried mutants who have a similar problem. It's interesting that you have feral characteristics...fur, teeth...but not really anything else. It's almost like it's something else. You're definitely the only person I've met with a tail so far."

He flicked his tail up into his lap at that, smiling. "It is rather unique. But have you not met Doreen? Her tail is very unlike mine, hers is a squirrel mutation."

"Heard of, not yet met so far," Jean said.

"I saw her in the distance once but I didn't want to yell 'hey...random person...can I see your tail?' across the room," Jean said, laughing.

"I think that'd be a little rude."

"A little, perhaps", he said, amused. "But introductions could be made."

Jean smiled. "That'd be nice," she said. She sat in silence for a moment as they left the city limits.

"How old were you when you first teleported?"

"13", he said with a smile. "My brother and I had gone wandering, further from the camp than we really should have, and we were going to be late home... and suddenly, I was home."

"Did you have any side effects? Like...disorientation or...?" Jean said. Her specialization made her curious about how powers manifested and worked.

"The first time, yes. It took a few minutes for me to know what had happened, and then I went back for Stefan. And then I fainted." A wry grin. "Possibly I overstretched it a little, so soon."

Jean laughed. "Probably," she said. "Does he look like you too? Your brother?"

"I am adopted. Stefan is human - he looks very like the image I wear with the machine, but bigger."

"Oh," Jean said, thinking of Matt and Clint as well. There were so many people at the mansion who were either adopted or orphaned. She seemed to be the rarity. But family wasn't just blood.

"Did your parents....pass away?" she said. Often genetic mutations that manifested in drastically altered physical appearances usually meant that the genes were dominant in the parents, but not always.

He laughed a little at that, bitterly. "No. No, they did not."

Sensing that she'd touched a nerve, Jean paused. "I'm sorry...um. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories," she said. Biting her lip, she tapped her fingers against the steering wheel.

"Um....something else to talk about uh....do you have any hobbies?"

"I do not believe in secrets, and so I will tell you. My father is a German baron who has tried to kill me twice, and my mother is Mystique. So you see why I prefer to consider myself Rom. As for hobbies - I read, I write sometimes, I walk my dog and do acrobatics, and I do whatever Jubilee has decided we will do."

"Mystique?" Jean repeated. "The...shapeshifter, right?"

She'd read a little about her but they'd had so many enemies it was hard to keep track. The part about her being blue was what made her remember, which....answered her theory on dominant physical traits.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, with your father," she added sympathetically. Except for the incident with Annie, her life seemed like a cakewalk compared to everyone else at the mansion.

She smiled a little. "I'd love to see the acrobatics sometime, though. How'd you get into that?"

"It came naturally to me with the physical changes, and my parents saw that when I was very young and began to teach me. We had - they still have - a small circus. And yes, the shapeshifter, and thank you."

Jean nodded. "You're welcome. Was it hard meeting her?" she said. She knew Mystique had developed a reputation as being....not very nice.

"It was... complicated. I must admit for quite some time, my feelings were mixed on the subject."

Nodding again, Jean wanted to ask how they were now, and while she knew he'd tell her, she didn't want to keep opening up old wounds to satisfy her curiosity.

"That's pretty neat about the circus, too. Were you a performer?"

"As I grew older, yes." He smiled. "I liked doing it very much, and still do."

Jean grinned. "Let me guess, flying trapeze?"

"Exactly. As soon as I was old and practiced enough."

Nodding in satisfaction that she was right, Jean laughed. "Like I said, I'd still love to see you perform sometime. Maybe when you don't have a small goose egg on the back of your head?" she said as the mansion's gates came up ahead and their car pulled in.

"Probably for the best idea, yes." He nods. "It should not be so very long, and then I would be happy to show you."

Jean smiled. "I look forward to it," she said, pushing the automatic gate opener.

"In the meantime, however, I'm going to put up groceries and then we can take a better look at your souvenir from saving the day."

"Shall I wait for you in the medlab?" he asked.

"Yep. Should only take me a few minutes to put everything up," Jean said. "Then I can give you a real lollypop with an actual variety of flavors to choose from."

He laughed at that, bright and cheerful. "It is reassuring to know that never changes."

A broad grin crossed Jean's face. "Lollypops are an important component in practicing medicine. At least they are to me."

"Even when not treating the very young."

"Especially for the not very young. Everyone deserves a lollypop," Jean said, pulling into the garage.

"If they have to come in to see me because something went ow then they deserve a little pampering. I suck at giving manipedis so the least I can do is provide candy."

Kurt grinned at her. "Then I shall wait for you in expectation of my lollypop."

"You should come by around Halloween. Then I break out the fun sized Snickers bars," Jean said, unbuckling her seatbelt. She paused.

"Actually don't come by because that means you're hurt and I don't like seeing people hurt. You can just come by and say hi and I'll give you candy."

"I will gladly do that," he promised, moving to get out of the car in turn.

Jean laughed. "Alright, excellent," she said, popping open the trunk.

She tilted her head. "And Kurt? Thanks for the talk."

"You are very welcome." He smiled. "If ever you need or want it again, you know where to find me."

"Thanks," Jean said, smiling back. Hopefully she wouldn't have to but she still wasn't feeling as confident as she'd like about becoming more of a social rights activist. Still, the idea of it was intriguing.

"I'll see you in a few minutes."