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xp_logsScott stops by to check up on Jean after everything with Parker.
You'd think that the unusual would be the everyday for him by this point, but this was one of the ones that just took the cherry on that. Finding out that Jean had been dating Parker Matthews who just happened to be possessed by the Shadow King was...well strange didn't even begin to encompass it. Yet here he was, here they all were and well it was time to have 'the talk' with Jean which wasn't going to be awkward at all but, well there wasn't anything that could be done about that now. The X-man heaved a quiet sigh and knocked on the door, "Hey Jean...you in there?"
Jean stared at her laptop screen. She wasn't sure which episode of Friends this was. After awhile they blurred together. On doctor's orders of 'rest and recovery,' she felt anything but rested.
Turning her head, she sensed a familiar, but surprising presence shortly before she heard the knock.
"Come in?" she said. They hadn't spoken in months beyond anything to do with training or comms duty. Naturally, she was curious why he'd stop by.
The door swung open with a soft creak, unlike most of the doors in the mansion that seemed determined to make as much noise as possible then they opened, revealing a sheepish looking X-man. "I figure you probably don't wanna have the whole mansion and their uncles crowding you right now but I figured someone should come over to check in on you."
Jean smiled. The act of it made her face hurt but pretty much everything did so she wasn't going to stop smiling, when the occasion called for it.
"Thanks. I don't mind people stopping by. It's good to have the distraction," she said, motioning to a nearby chair if he was interested.
"Cece says I should be able to head back to work in a day or two."
Scott dropped easily into the chair, staring across the room to observe Jean intently, "There's medically sound to go back to work...and there's if you're actually ready for it. I don't know exactly what you went through, how it must feel but I've seen a lot around here and some of it...well I know it threw me for a loop for weeks."
Jean fell silent, something flickering across her eyes, a distance, shell shocked. She glanced away, then managed a faint smile.
"I like the work," she said, patting the laptop.
"If I hear one more laugh track I'll probably go out of my skull. At least it gives me something to do."
The smile disappeared.
"I should've known."
"Never mind. I'm sorry, that probably brings back a lot of unwanted memories."
Scott shook his head, staring down at his hands as they twined together, memories of a smiling face and a familiar head of purple hair. "One woman I knew, I was close to, she was possessed too. A psychic ghost that tried to control her and caused a lot of damage before I knew about it." The man lifted his brown eyes to stare at Jean, his face painted with a sorrow that he was never able to escape, deep and ingrained. The sorrow of memories of happy times forever stained by darkness, the man took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out.
"In this place...we've seen more tragedy than is fair," the look in his eyes was unshielded, not dependence on being the leader, the solid figure. A moment of open honesty for the woman grieving before him. "I know it doesn't mean much, that you feel that it was your fault." His hands twisted together as he swallowed and continued quietly, "that nothing anyone says is going to convince you otherwise. That there was maybe something you could have done differently, that things would have ended better..." He gave a sad, wry laugh. "You're too much like me there, I think that everyday."
Sitting back down on the bed, Jean searched Scott's face. His emotions pushed against her battered and beaten psychic walls. It was everything she could do to keep her walls up after the attack. If feelings could bleed through sometimes before....His felt like a weight, eternally bearing down on his shoulders. Like Atlas, except with a million other things to do other than merely hold up the world--like save it.
He was right, he was too much like her in some ways.
"I guess I'm in good company, then," she said, leaning back with a heavy wince. She smiled.
"Is that why you're very good at kicking everyone's ass with those Danger Room scenarios? Planning for what could be?"
"The more I beat them up in there, the less the world can beat them up when they're thrown into a situation they aren't used to," Scott agreed. "It...there's so much out there we can't know, on every mission, every time someone leaves the mansion they can be met by the unknown and I can't protect them." The man's voice had grown quiet as he stared down at his hands, then looked up at Jean and gave her a wry smile. "I've let too many people down in the past, so never again. Let them groan and curse at me, but they'll be ready for whatever the world throws at them. No one else gets hurt if I can help it."
Jean's smile widened a little. "They may complain, but I think they probably know you have their best interests at heart," she said. She fell silent for a few moments, her attention drifting toward the frozen image of the Friends sitting on their couch at Central Perk on her computer screen.
"When you were a kid, did you ever want to live in a movie or a TV show? Just...open the door and escape to Narnia or the Neverending Story?"
Scott pressed back in his seat, the smallest hints of a smile playing around his lips as a nostalgic look glazed his eyes for a moment. "Peter Pan, when I was younger I always wanted to be Peter Pan," he admitted, "to be able to fly and run away to Neverland without any worries. Who wouldn't want it. You?"
Jean grinned softly. "It was a toss up between Indiana Jones and Star Wars," she said.
"Either way, I wanted an adventure, uncovering mysteries or saving the galaxy. I'd watch the trilogies over and over until my parents hid them. I made my own Princess Leia costume for Halloween once. The wig got too itchy, though, so the Princess had red hair for a few hours." She closed the laptop.
"Anything was better than boring old Annandale-on-Hudson."
"See I don't know," Scott offered the woman a wry smile as he glanced up at her, "growing up where I did, I would have killed to live somewhere like Annandale-on-Hudson. Boring, white picket fence town, I'd have loved it."
Jean laughed. "Grass is always greener, I guess," she said.
"Where'd you grow up?"
"Something like that," Scott agreed, "I grew up in the city, bounced around the system, just another orphan that didn't fit in. Alex got lucky, I could have ended up a lot worse if Charles hadn't found me."
Jean tilted her head. "Yeah, Charles has a habit of picking up strays," she mused.
"There are so many lives that might've turned out differently in these walls if it wasn't for him."
"You're not wrong, we have a lot of people here with ability, the potential to do great things but without Charles who knows where that ability might have ended up. Although, you know I might have enjoyed being emperor of the Summers empire."
Jean paused in consideration. "Emperor Scott does have a nice ring to it. But what lands would you conquer to build your new empire? There might be some pushback."
The X-man waved his hand, an amused smirk playing across his lips as he winked at the woman, "Baah, technicalities. Who wouldn't want to live under the reign of such a benevolent dictator?"
Jean snorted, smirking back. "Please. I've lived your Danger Room scenarios. Benevolent is not the word I'd use to describe it," she said. She tilted her head.
"A well organized, strategic reign perhaps."
Scott laughed and inclined his head to the red-haired doctor, "And you never know what'll happen next. But in the end, isn't that better?"
Jean's smile widened. "For you," she said.
"I can see why you went with dictator as the title. The One-Eyed King sounds too much like a Greek tragedy."
The man's lips curled up into a smile as he winked at her, "It kinda does," he agreed with a laugh, "On the other hand, they do say that in the valley of the blind the one-eyed man is king..."
"Touche, King Scott," Jean said. She started to grin a little but the act of it hurt her face and she winced.
"Either way, I recommend red. It's a good color for you."
You'd think that the unusual would be the everyday for him by this point, but this was one of the ones that just took the cherry on that. Finding out that Jean had been dating Parker Matthews who just happened to be possessed by the Shadow King was...well strange didn't even begin to encompass it. Yet here he was, here they all were and well it was time to have 'the talk' with Jean which wasn't going to be awkward at all but, well there wasn't anything that could be done about that now. The X-man heaved a quiet sigh and knocked on the door, "Hey Jean...you in there?"
Jean stared at her laptop screen. She wasn't sure which episode of Friends this was. After awhile they blurred together. On doctor's orders of 'rest and recovery,' she felt anything but rested.
Turning her head, she sensed a familiar, but surprising presence shortly before she heard the knock.
"Come in?" she said. They hadn't spoken in months beyond anything to do with training or comms duty. Naturally, she was curious why he'd stop by.
The door swung open with a soft creak, unlike most of the doors in the mansion that seemed determined to make as much noise as possible then they opened, revealing a sheepish looking X-man. "I figure you probably don't wanna have the whole mansion and their uncles crowding you right now but I figured someone should come over to check in on you."
Jean smiled. The act of it made her face hurt but pretty much everything did so she wasn't going to stop smiling, when the occasion called for it.
"Thanks. I don't mind people stopping by. It's good to have the distraction," she said, motioning to a nearby chair if he was interested.
"Cece says I should be able to head back to work in a day or two."
Scott dropped easily into the chair, staring across the room to observe Jean intently, "There's medically sound to go back to work...and there's if you're actually ready for it. I don't know exactly what you went through, how it must feel but I've seen a lot around here and some of it...well I know it threw me for a loop for weeks."
Jean fell silent, something flickering across her eyes, a distance, shell shocked. She glanced away, then managed a faint smile.
"I like the work," she said, patting the laptop.
"If I hear one more laugh track I'll probably go out of my skull. At least it gives me something to do."
The smile disappeared.
"I should've known."
"Never mind. I'm sorry, that probably brings back a lot of unwanted memories."
Scott shook his head, staring down at his hands as they twined together, memories of a smiling face and a familiar head of purple hair. "One woman I knew, I was close to, she was possessed too. A psychic ghost that tried to control her and caused a lot of damage before I knew about it." The man lifted his brown eyes to stare at Jean, his face painted with a sorrow that he was never able to escape, deep and ingrained. The sorrow of memories of happy times forever stained by darkness, the man took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out.
"In this place...we've seen more tragedy than is fair," the look in his eyes was unshielded, not dependence on being the leader, the solid figure. A moment of open honesty for the woman grieving before him. "I know it doesn't mean much, that you feel that it was your fault." His hands twisted together as he swallowed and continued quietly, "that nothing anyone says is going to convince you otherwise. That there was maybe something you could have done differently, that things would have ended better..." He gave a sad, wry laugh. "You're too much like me there, I think that everyday."
Sitting back down on the bed, Jean searched Scott's face. His emotions pushed against her battered and beaten psychic walls. It was everything she could do to keep her walls up after the attack. If feelings could bleed through sometimes before....His felt like a weight, eternally bearing down on his shoulders. Like Atlas, except with a million other things to do other than merely hold up the world--like save it.
He was right, he was too much like her in some ways.
"I guess I'm in good company, then," she said, leaning back with a heavy wince. She smiled.
"Is that why you're very good at kicking everyone's ass with those Danger Room scenarios? Planning for what could be?"
"The more I beat them up in there, the less the world can beat them up when they're thrown into a situation they aren't used to," Scott agreed. "It...there's so much out there we can't know, on every mission, every time someone leaves the mansion they can be met by the unknown and I can't protect them." The man's voice had grown quiet as he stared down at his hands, then looked up at Jean and gave her a wry smile. "I've let too many people down in the past, so never again. Let them groan and curse at me, but they'll be ready for whatever the world throws at them. No one else gets hurt if I can help it."
Jean's smile widened a little. "They may complain, but I think they probably know you have their best interests at heart," she said. She fell silent for a few moments, her attention drifting toward the frozen image of the Friends sitting on their couch at Central Perk on her computer screen.
"When you were a kid, did you ever want to live in a movie or a TV show? Just...open the door and escape to Narnia or the Neverending Story?"
Scott pressed back in his seat, the smallest hints of a smile playing around his lips as a nostalgic look glazed his eyes for a moment. "Peter Pan, when I was younger I always wanted to be Peter Pan," he admitted, "to be able to fly and run away to Neverland without any worries. Who wouldn't want it. You?"
Jean grinned softly. "It was a toss up between Indiana Jones and Star Wars," she said.
"Either way, I wanted an adventure, uncovering mysteries or saving the galaxy. I'd watch the trilogies over and over until my parents hid them. I made my own Princess Leia costume for Halloween once. The wig got too itchy, though, so the Princess had red hair for a few hours." She closed the laptop.
"Anything was better than boring old Annandale-on-Hudson."
"See I don't know," Scott offered the woman a wry smile as he glanced up at her, "growing up where I did, I would have killed to live somewhere like Annandale-on-Hudson. Boring, white picket fence town, I'd have loved it."
Jean laughed. "Grass is always greener, I guess," she said.
"Where'd you grow up?"
"Something like that," Scott agreed, "I grew up in the city, bounced around the system, just another orphan that didn't fit in. Alex got lucky, I could have ended up a lot worse if Charles hadn't found me."
Jean tilted her head. "Yeah, Charles has a habit of picking up strays," she mused.
"There are so many lives that might've turned out differently in these walls if it wasn't for him."
"You're not wrong, we have a lot of people here with ability, the potential to do great things but without Charles who knows where that ability might have ended up. Although, you know I might have enjoyed being emperor of the Summers empire."
Jean paused in consideration. "Emperor Scott does have a nice ring to it. But what lands would you conquer to build your new empire? There might be some pushback."
The X-man waved his hand, an amused smirk playing across his lips as he winked at the woman, "Baah, technicalities. Who wouldn't want to live under the reign of such a benevolent dictator?"
Jean snorted, smirking back. "Please. I've lived your Danger Room scenarios. Benevolent is not the word I'd use to describe it," she said. She tilted her head.
"A well organized, strategic reign perhaps."
Scott laughed and inclined his head to the red-haired doctor, "And you never know what'll happen next. But in the end, isn't that better?"
Jean's smile widened. "For you," she said.
"I can see why you went with dictator as the title. The One-Eyed King sounds too much like a Greek tragedy."
The man's lips curled up into a smile as he winked at her, "It kinda does," he agreed with a laugh, "On the other hand, they do say that in the valley of the blind the one-eyed man is king..."
"Touche, King Scott," Jean said. She started to grin a little but the act of it hurt her face and she winced.
"Either way, I recommend red. It's a good color for you."
