Scott and Jubilee, Saturday

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They run into each other in the hall after their exchange of comments on her journal. She accuses him and the rest of the staff of endangering the students by keeping them in the dark. Scott takes offense. To put it mildly.



Jubilee paused as she saw who was walking toward her, fumbling with her books for a second as she pondered walking quickly in the other direction. She'd gone fairly gung-ho on the journal system this morning and she wasn't entirely sure what Scott would say to her. Still, she'd been right about what she said. Keeping them in the dark never solved anything and in fact, usually put them in danger. She wished the teachers would stop trying to pack them in cotton wool all the time. Well, okay, there was the point where they kept blowing things up or having weird people with guns keep attacking them but that was hardly their fault.

"Hey." She muttered.

"Jubilee," Scott said coolly, not appreciating the resentful look he got. Part of him felt very slightly bad for jumping on her, rather than on the people who'd apparently been stupid and made death threats, but hearing the same old song yet again had silenced that repentant voice pretty quickly. "I'm off to see the Professor," he said as he walked past her. "Excuse me."

She blinked in surprise, automatically stepping in front of him before she realised that she was doing it. She always had been someone that would take the hardest road...something she should probably work on. "Dude, you got some issue with me you want to discuss?"

Scott gave her a hard look. "Not particularly," he said, managing not to snap the words. "I think you probably said all that needed saying already."

She gave him a hard look, her snort audible. "See, me, I was thinkin' I was only gettin' started. You want to explain to me why you guys are yet again endangering our lives by telling us jack shit? Or is that just school policy now?"

Scott froze. And it was a good thing, because if his jaw hadn't locked shut for a second there, something unforgivable would have come out. Since he didn't manage to speak until the tidal wave of incandescent rage had at least mostly passed, what did come out was somewhat more temperate. Somewhat. "Here's the thing, Jubilee," he said, his voice very soft. "We can be competent, or incompetent. But it's very difficult for me, personally, to be competent, when you're keeping me from reporting to the Professor and finding out what he wants me to do next."

Jubilee shrugged and stepped aside, her expression closed, almost artic. "Far be it from me to stop you doin' your job, Cyke. Try to give us a little warning this time before the soldiers get here, hey? Wouldn't want to end up walkin' out of the next bathroom I enter to another gun pointed at my head. But hey, I'm just a kid, right? I should expect these little rough spots through life's wonderous journey. It'll be a learning experience, I'm sure."

Scott, bizarrely, heard himself laugh. "All right then," he said, grinning in what was undoubtedly a fairly disturbing fashion at Jubilee. "You want to know? Come along, then. And when you're done hearing the complete briefing on Remy, I can take you back to my office and introduce you to the two hundred and fifty other pressing security issues I deal with every day. Hell, I'll throw open my files to you, and you can wander through them at leisure!" The mirth was fading and his voice was raising, the volume out of his control completely as he took a step towards Jubilee. "Only I expect you to offer me SOLUTIONS, Jubilee! I expect you to be PRODUCTIVE, with all of this information YOU WANT SO DAMNED MUCH!"

Jubilee's gum popped in the moment of silence that followed Scott's words, her eyes somewhat rounded with surprise. Scott had always seemed so...well, so stiff and proper and not the type to shout at the top of his lungs at her in the middle of a corridor. "Dude...you've got like this vein thing happenin' in your forehead." she said, before groaning inwardly. She seriously needed therapy to control her mouth.

The comment really should have deflated him, but he was well past that point now. "Don't change the subject, Jubilation!" he snarled at her, a sheer act of will alone keeping him from taking another step in her direction. "What's the matter? You don't want to find out just how fragile all of this is?" He waved a hand around at the mansion. "Don't you want to know EVERYTHING? All of the dozens of nightmare scenarios? All the things that make me wake up in a cold sweat EVERY FUCKING NIGHT LATELY?"

She'd taken a step back, and she could have sworn she could feel the wind from Scott's heated words blowing her hair back. Okay, so that was just her overactive imagination but he really was very loud. 'This would be shock' she thought numbly.

"Dude, you think I don't know how fragile all this is? I was one of the kids Striker decided it would be fun to stick in a very small room that had slime and dripping water, remember? And then there was that fun where I've almost died several dozen times. Information isn't going to kill us, Scott. Fuckin' ignorance will."

Well, no one had ever accused her of wanting to live forever.

"And what the hell do you think you can do with that information?" he raged at her. Still yelling, but helpless to stop. "Better than us?" He reached out and grabbed her arm, hauling her along with him. "Then come and look," he snarled feverishly. "All of the nightmare scenarios, all of my plans that don't cover everything and can't, all of the factors I can't account for... you can see them all, Jubilee, and then you can SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT BEING KEPT IN THE DARK!"

Jubilee spent a few moments getting her legs working right as she was pulled along by Scott. She knew it would be a smart thing not to say anything else but her brain had already run whimpering into the outer darkness and left a 'do not disturb till you've stopped being suicidal...love brain.' sign on her psyche. Which left her mouth pretty much free to do what it wished. "Um...keeping myself alive always seemed a good choice for me. What the hell else would I do with the information? You can't fuckin' defend yourself if you only know half the fucking story, right? Why is it you guys always seem to think we're goin' to run off and do somethin' heroic just cause we know the full story. I'm not fuckin' stupid."

He whirled on her so fast that she stumbled backwards, and might have fallen if he'd released his grip for an instant. "THERE!" he roared at her, his grip tightening on her arm. "Right the fuck there, Jubilee, that's your answer! 'Defend yourself'? 'Keep myself alive'?" He let go of her this time, giving her a push back. "The only people who SHOULD know the thousand and one things that could come through our front door and destroy everything are the people who are ready to lay their lives down to prevent it from happening!" he raged at her. "I would step in front of a bullet for any of you! So would the rest of the staff! But none of you BELIEVE that, do you? Too damned concerned with what you think you're entitled to know!"

Jubilee stumbled a bit, catching herself with her hands as she tripped and fell on her ass. "I do believe that. Don't you think I don't know that you guys would protect us? Course I know it. But just cause you'd step in front of a bullet for me, don't mean that one day you wouldn't be too damn slow. I had parents once, Scott. And they both died. They'd have protected me with their lives too but it didn't matter. Sometimes knowing enough to get out of the way when the bullet comes is the only thing that saves you. I learnt that fuckin' early and there ain't a God damn thing you can say to me that'll make me think it isn't as true now as it was when I first learnt it."

"Fine," he snapped at her, his hands clenching into fists at his side as he tried to stop them from shaking. "You want to know it all, Jubilee? All of it? You show up at my office at nine in the morning tomorrow and I will show you all of it. You can let it eat your fucking life whole like it has mine." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Right now, get the hell out of my sight. I have too much to do to argue with you anymore." He turned on his heel and started to stalk away, heading for Charles' office.

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Paige: *sighs, makes mental note to e-mail the egg song and some medication to Scott*