Jubilee, Madelyn and the Bartlet family - Wednesday evening

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Jubilee and Madelyn arrive in Philadelphia after a long drive and are welcomed by Madelyn's parents and kid sister. It's all very normal, much to Jubilee's amusement and delight. She discovers Carlie talks even more than she does.



"Here we are," Madelyn said with a grin as she pulled the car up
outside what could have been a house straight from a movie of Middle America. Two storeys, front porch, large windows casting pools of welcoming yellow light into the twilight... there was even a white picket fence. "Ready to face the Bartlet hoarde, firecracker?"

Jubilee stretched bonelessly, looking with curiosity at the house. She'd never thought she'd see it, an honest to God, white picket fence. She grinned widely, this was going to be fun. "Dude, lookin' forward to it. You make 'em sound like the Mongols or somethin' though, how many family members you got?"

"Mom and Dad, Carlie, my brother Joe and his wife, and their two kids. Not exactly as hoarde-like as the Guthries, but what we lack in numbers, we make up for in volume," said Madelyn as she turned off the engine and unbuckled her seat belt. As if to confirm her words, there was a shriek and the front door opened. The girl who came running down the steps looked a lot like Madelyn - her hair tended more towards the blonde side of red-blonde, and she was more freckled, but it was obvious they were related.

"MOM! DAD! They're HERE!" she bellowed back at the house, before pouncing on Madelyn as she got out of the car. "OhmyGod you'refinallyhere! We missed you! You look awful!!"

"Good to see you too, kiddo," Madelyn said with a chuckle, returning the hug. "Wow, look at you, all grown up. College life suits you." Then she remembered Jubilee - the girl had followed her lead, getting out of the car, but was now standing by a little uncertainly, watching the scene with a mixture of shyness and caution. "Carlie, this is Jubilee, one of my students. Jubilee, this is Carlie, my kid sister and bane of my existence when I was a teenager."

"You mean I'm not still? Damn, I need to try harder..." Carlie untangled herself from Madelyn and beamed at Jubilee. "Hi! Glad you could make it! I've been wanting to meet some of Mad's students for a while, but she won't let me visit." She pouted at her sister.

Jubilee grinned back, it was a bit hard not to with all that bouncy enthusiasm in front of her. "I think she's scared we'd be a bad influence on you. Like, totally filled with teenage hormones, that place."

Her tone was mischievous and the look she slid Madelyn teasing. She could feel herself letting go of some of the defensiveness that was as natural to her as breathing. She leaned back into the car and dragged their bags out, hoisting them onto her shoulders.

"It was more the not being able to breathe for five minutes for the past four months, but hey, I'll play ogre for you." Madelyn reached over and took her bag from Jubilee - the girl had enough to carry with her own bag, the amount of clothes she'd packed - and smiled as two more people came down the front steps, a little more slowly than Carlie had. Obviously her parents. "We made it," she said. "Finally. Traffic was hell."

"You'd have to try hard to be a bad influence on me," Carlie confided to Jubilee with a snicker as Madelyn was engulfed in parental hugs. "I saw that CNN special on the school, and when I realised that was where Mad was, I was all like, wow and stuff. I'm with the mutant rights group at school, and we're all real big fans of your Professor. I'd love to meet him one day."

Jubilee was watching Madelyn, a smile on her face. The doctor really had been extremely overworked the past year. It was good to see her so happy for a change. "Chuck's a lot of fun. You'd think he was all serious and crusty, ya know? But, then he'll tell a joke and you'll be all whoa, joke, from the Prof. Mutant rights, hey? Might give you my friend Jamie's e-mail address. He's been organising meetings between mutants and non-mutants. So, where should I drop this stuff?"

"Mom's got the guest room all made up..." Carlie began, but was interrupted by her mother finally releasing Madelyn (and stopping her lecture on how she needed to take better care of herself and what man would want someone so tired and thin-looking?) and coming to welcome Jubilee.

"So nice to meet you!" she said, holding out her hand. "Madelyn's told us so much about you - you can call me Monica, and this here's Jack."

"Jubilee, wasn't it?" Jack Bartlet asked, joining his wife. He was definitely quieter than either Monica or Carlie - Madelyn obviously took after him - but there was quiet humour in his voice. "Welcome to our house. As long as you're here, treat this place like your own."

"Except with less blowing up," Madelyn added teasingly. She looked much more relaxed than she had in months. Obviously this had been a very good idea.

Jubilee giggled and then stopped with a look of surprise on her face. Had she actually giggled? Like a normal teenage girl? Gah, she'd never live it down if the others found out. Still, they weren't here and she was, so she'd enjoy it while she could. Reaching out, she shook Monica's hand and then Jack's in turn. "Pleased to meet you." she said, beaming.

Jack nodded approvingly. Good to see a kid with manners. "Well, come on in - no sense in staying out in the cold," he said, holding out his hand for Jubilee's bag. He'd already taken Madelyn's, despite her protests.

"You two must be starved," Monica declared, making vague herding gestures towards the front door. "Inside and get settled, and then I'll fix you something. Bad enough Madelyn's too thin, but you look like you're about to blow away in the next breeze!"

"I eat, Mom. It's just been a bit busy at the school lately," Madelyn protested, but she was still smiling. "I hope you brought the second stomach, kiddo, you're going to need it," she added to Jubilee.

"I've got at least three." she replied, following behind Madelyn. "Two for mains and then the dessert stomach. Cause like, no matter how much other food you've had, there's always room for dessert."

She paused at the door, looking inside. 'Wow' she thought. It wasn't posh, like the mansion but the feeling of the place hit her. This, was a Home, she could almost feel the capital letter. Of course, she felt at home in the mansion but this was different. She walked forward, leaving her worries at the door. It didn't seem right to bring anything but peace into this place.

Madelyn, seeing the relaxing of Jubilee's posture, the change of her expression, smiled. Definitely the right decision.

"I'll show you the guest room," Carlie announced, having been practically vibrating in the background whilst introductions were being made. Jubilee barely had time to react before her arm was grabbed and she was being dragged upstairs. At least Carlie had waited long enough to retrieve Jubilee's bag from her father.

Jubilee looked around curiously as she was drawn along by her arm. On The wall of the stairs were rows of family portraits and she grinned widely at a rather younger picture of Madelyn in pigtails.

'That is adorable' she thought, vowing to tease Madelyn about it the next chance she got.

"So, you go to school locally?" she asked Carlie.

Carlie nodded. "Yeah. In my first semester at Penn State, studying Poli-Sci and Journalism. It's so much fun!" Obviously it was, since Carlie bounced a little as she talked. "So much better than high school, with all those cliques and worrying about who's wearing what and who's seeing who and all the rest of it. I mean, I can have discussions about politics and mutant rights and books and theater and all the rest of it, and no-one looks at me like I'm a freak, you know?" Her chatter brought them to the second-floor landing, and a number of doors leading off it. At the third, she paused and opened it, leading the way in and dropping Jubilee's bag on the floor. "This is the guest room - it used to be Joe's old room, but Mom and Dad converted it when he got married. He and his wife and kids live in Philly, so they'll just drive over tomorrow. He's a jazz musician, did Mad tell you that? Of course, his wife is the breadwinner since there's not a lot of money in that, but I always say it's better to do something because you love it, not because it earns you big bucks. My room's just next door, so if you want anything in the middle of the night, just bang on the wall. That wall, not the other wall. Mad will be in her old room, and she gets all doctory if you wake her up in the middle of the night, and shots? Ew."

Mads had been right, she could already tell she was going to like
Carlie a lot. It wasn't just the bouncing and the enthusiasm. It was the total immediate acceptance without any question as to whether she was a good person or not. Mads had been the only other person to ever show her that before, and Jubilee wondered if maybe it was the environment, this environment that had made them so open. She decided that instead of feeling wistful about what could have beens, she'd enjoy every minute of the time she was here.

'What is, is,' she thought with amusement.

She supposed that counted for the good, as well as the bad.

"I have trouble sleepin' sometimes." she admitted, before walking into the room and poking around.

It was a beautiful room, obviously designed to suit the taste of either a male or female guest. The colours were in soft greens, the bed covered in a large quilt that looked like it had been homemade. 'My God, I've just walked into middle America...' she thought with general amusement.

"Know exactly what you mean about high school though. Turned 18 a couple of weeks ago and this is supposed to be my last year of high school classes. Still, got a bit to go before I'm comfortable with college level courses. How'd you know what you wanted to do? Been tryin' to think of where I should be goin' after this and I'm just spinnin' my wheels mostly."

Carlie nodded. Madelyn hadn't given away the specifics of Jubilee's history, but there had been enough hints to know Jubilee's life hadn't been an easy one. "I didn't, for the longest time," she said, giving into temptation and sitting on the bed, even though her mother would be horrified at the lack of manners. Mom tended to worry too much about stuff like that. She patted the spot next to her, encouraging Jubilee to sit and gossip - Madelyn would be getting the third degree downstairs for ages yet. "And it was hard, since Joe always had the music, even when he was small, apparently, and then Mad with the medicine and the FBI and everything. Hard to live up to, you know? Being the youngest sucks sometimes." She began twisting a lock of strawberry-blonde hair around her finger as she thought. "Then I got to my senior year and had no idea what I was going to do, so one day I sat down and wrote a list of all the things I liked to do or was interested in, and then I showed it to
everyone I could think of - my folks, Mad, Joe, my guidance counsellor at school, some of my teachers, a couple of professors at Penn State - and got as many different opinions as I could. It all leaned towards journalism, so that's what I did, but I'm keeping an open mind and taking some other classes, like poli-sci and psychology and creative writing, just to see if I like them better." Carlie gave Jubilee a grin. "I'm calling this first year my 'making up my mind' year. It's driving Mom and Dad crazy, but Mad understands." It was obvious Carlie worshipped the ground her older sister walked on, judging from the number of times her name had come up, and the expression on her face.

Jubilee nodded, thinking about that. Writing a list was something she could definitely do. Nathan had, had her writing several for their sessions in getting her to think properly, or as she liked to think of it 'common sense' lessons. There weren't a lot of people she could show it to. Mads, obviously. Nathan, since it fit into their lessons. The Professor? Put a maybe on him. Kitty and Illyana, definitely. Samson would be someone to ask as well. She could do some research as well, start looking into colleges. She didn't have to decide it all right now, some of the other kids were doing just a few college courses and she still needed to catch up on her classes before she could leave high school completely behind. She sat down on the bed, pulling her feet up under her. She knew an invitation to a good
gossip session when she saw one.

"I play the electric violin at school. Only started learning it last year though, so I'm still on the basic stuff. Alison Blaire, the music teacher, she's cool people. Even if she did make me meditate for like, five hours in complete silence this one time. I'm good at the piano too but haven't played anything on that since I was like, eight. Probably don't even remember how it goes now. Mom was always big on music and gymnastics.
When she got too old for the latter, she started up the former. Wanted her daughter to have as much culture as she could give her."

Carlie's eyes went round. "Alison Blaire is your music teacher?! Oh my God, that's so unbelievably cool! I mean, I saw that thing on TV, the blood drive, and she was there, but she's your teacher?" She clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, shit, that must mean the kid that was shot was from your school! Is he okay? It was hard to see on the news but the person giving him CPR looked a bit like Mad... It was her, wasn't it?"

Jubilee nodded slowly, wondering if she should be telling Carlie this kind of information. But, it wasn't like it was top secret and Jubilee found it very hard to picture Mads’ little sister as a threat to the school. Stuff it, sometimes you just had to trust. "Yeah, that was Doug. He's doin' okay now, although he got SO many lectures after what he did. He really scared us. How much has Mads told you about the school? Don't want ta be makin' yer spin out but it's the kinda story that has mutant powers, ya know? Sometimes people can get a little 'That defies all the laws of reality' on ya when you try and explain."

Catching the hesitation, Carlie made a face. "Look, you don't have to tell me if you aren't supposed to - when Mad was in the FBI, she had to keep reminding me that she couldn't really tell me about her work, even without all the bodies and autopsies and organs and ick. Took me a while, but I got it. It's not safe for you to blab about everything." A small, impish grin crossed her face. "But you can tell me a little bit, can't you? I know it's a school for kids with powers - got that from the CNN special – and like I said, I'm with the mutant rights group at school. My best friend Karen? She makes plants grow. It's the coolest thing. So I'm not going to wig on you if you do... what do you do? If that's not a rude question? Mom tells me I'm being rude, but if you don't ask, you don't find out, do you?"

"S'not that I don't trust ya. You're Mads’ kid sister, afterall. Just that it ain't my story ta tell. As to my powers, well...think I'd need a bit more of an open space to really show you. It's a bit hard to explain. Here, I'll show ya a small example, then maybe I can give ya the big display tonight."

Jubilee held out her hand, palm upwards and willed a small stream of plasma energy to form small multi-coloured ropes that twirled softly in a circle on her palm.

"Wow. Oh, wow," Carlie breathed, eyes wide. She reached out towards the plasma, pulling her hand back when she felt the heat being radiated. "That is so unbelievably cool."

Jubilee's surprised grin lit up her eyes as she closed her hand around the plasma, pulling it back into herself. "I usually do fireworks for the kids at the school at special occasions. If Mads is okay with it, I could give you guys a show tonight after dinner."

She'd never had anyone react in quite that way to her powers before. It was a novelty she could get used to. Looking around the room, she turned to Carlie. "So, want to give me a tour of the rest of this place? I'm dying to see it all."

"Well, there isn't that much of it, but sure! Besides, Mom'll be
wanting to start feeding you - she has a Thing." Carlie grinned widely at her. "This is going to be so much fun!"