Disclaimers: Lessee…the characters belong to Marvel, and the movie GI Jane isn't mine although it is a killer movie. Nuff said.
A/N: I apologize for any mistakes beforehand. My usual beta reader is in the middle of her mock finals and been too busy to check my stuff. So try to be a little lenient for any major grammar or spelling errors! Hope you enjoy and please read and review…feedback is always sincerely appreciated and craved.
*Telepathic thought*
The Chicken Pox
Morning approached with the regularity of millennia of sunrises before it. That, however, did nothing to Jubilee's fervent hoping that once, just once morning would come just a few hours later. About twelve o'clock noon later. So it was on a Sunday morning that the newly risen sun's rays managed to work around trees, houses, and through several thick curtains and laws of physics to land precisely on Jubilee's eyelids.
"The universe is out to get me." she muttered as she peered blearily at the clock that was blinking happily that it was 5:13 am. "Noooooo." she moaned and burrowed further under the covers only to discover that she was well and truly awake. Throwing off her comforter, she slipped on her Bert and Ernie slippers and trodded downstairs to the kitchen.
Jubilee pushed her way through the swinging doors to find the kitchen was right where she had left it the night before. Yawning her way to the fridge, she picked up some milk and walked to the counter to make a bowl of cereal.
*Hey gel*
Sugar Frosted Bombs poured into the bowl by sheer luck as Jubilee glanced at Jono who was perched on the counter, right under her bowl of cereal in fact. "Mmm." she murmured, slopping milk on the little balls of sugar.
*Why you up so early?*
"Bad sun. Bad curtains. Too much sun, too little curtains." Taking the overflowing bowl of processed sugar to the table she began to pile it into her mouth. "Whmoyouph upmph?"
Jono held out his guitar that had been hastily removed out of spilling range. *Better acoustics in here than the basement.* he shrugged. *'Sides I couldn't sleep.* Plucking a few chords, he tightened the string thoughtfully and strummed a few chords. Humming softly in his head, he let his gaze fall on the younger girl in front of him. Her hair was a total mess, she was dressed in an old T-shirt of Cassidy's that said "Kiss me I'm Irish." and her face was all pink and blotchy. Curious he jumped off the counter and looked at her more closely. *Jubes have you looked in the mirror lately?*
Irritated, she scooted her chair further away. "It's not even fully light out and you're worried that I'm not wearing make-up yet? Jono..."
Before she could launch into a speech he grabbed a pan from the sink, one of the many leftover from Emma's dinner the night before. Scrapping off some of the gunk, he handed it to her. *Just look, you've got all these weird dots on your face.*
"Weird dots." rolling her eyes she looked at her reflection that was covered in tiny red blisters that, she discovered after curiously touching one, itched like hell. "Ow. Hey, ow!"
*Ever had the chicken pox Joo?*
Ignoring him, Jubilee just frantically scratched her body and when that didn't cut it anymore, used a plastic serving fork from the sink. Just when she had almost got the itching bearable, she found her fork being confiscated. "Hey!"
*Sorry luv. Can't scratch or it gets worse." Jono began to back away, holding the fork at arm's length. *Trust me. Jubes....*
Several minutes later Emma walked in the find Jono retreated to the kitchen table and Jubilee screeching at the top of her lungs, "Gimmie!! GIMMIE! Gimmiegimmiegimmie!"
Jono looked at her in relief and nodded towards Jubilee. *I think she has the chicken pox. I didn't want her to scratch.*
Emma suppressed a sigh. "Thank you Jonothon, you better go find the rest of the team and see who's had it before. The last thing we need is an epidemic. Contact Dr. Shay and see if she can come up and look at Jubilee." Jono nodded and sprinted out the door, the fork still in hand. Now alone, Emma looked at Jubilee whose eyes were beginning to redden. "Let's get you to bed. We'll get you a nice cool bath with some oatmeal to stop the itching and then I'll make you an ice cream soda for breakfast. How does that sound?"
Jubilee sniffed, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Good. Can I have the Playstation in my room? and the TV?" Emma nodded and put her arm around her to lead her upstairs.
"Of course, dear." Emma smiled down at the young girl and tried not to think about the next few weeks. Any other student getting sick wasn't a big deal, but Jubilee....Emma suppressed a shudder. God help them all if she got bored....
______________________________________________________________________________
The doctor had come and gone confirming everyone's fear, and Jubilee had been tucked into a fresh bed, with clean sheets and a cup of juice when the rest of the team arrived. Emma frowned at them from her position at Jubilee's bedside. "You all have had it?"
"Yeah Miz Frost." Paige said. "Most kids have had it."
"Good, then feel free to come in." Emma got up and pulled the sheets up around Jubilee's ears to what she felt was sufficient 'tucking in'. "Jubilee, I'll be back in a moment with your ice cream soda. Don't forget not to scratch otherwise I'll bring back the oven mitts and duct tape them to your hands." Chuckling to herself, she walked out.
Jubilee stuck her tongue out at her back and as soon as she was out of sight began to scratch in relief.
"Oven mitts are on their way up! Shall I bring the duct tape as well?" Emma called from the stairs.
"No." Pouting Jubilee glared the rest of her friends, daring them to say anything.
"Yah must feel awful!" Paige plopped down on the bed and gave Jubilee a quick hug, careful not to touch her skin and start up the itching. "How long are ya stuck here?"
"The doctor says my case is really bad so it'll be a week or so before I'm not contagious anymore and another week to rest up."
*Wow, tough luck gel.* Jono blinked sympathetically from his defense position at the door, not willing to be Jubilee's firing range just yet.
"I'll say." Angelo pointed to the kitchen downstairs. "You're going to let Emma make you something?"
Jubilee shrugged. "It's just an ice-cream soda. How hard can it be to make?"
"How hard is scrambled eggs?" he replied.
"Uh oh." Jubilee's widened as she recalled Emma's blackened and chunky eggs that had been formed and destroyed one Sunday morning. "Oh ewww."
Downstairs Emma was not having a good time. She had eaten several ice cream sodas in her day and enjoyed them. She had, however, never made one and had no idea what went in one. So, she had decided to just throw stuff in a blender and keep trying it until something tasted similar. It was a pretty good idea she thought. Only twenty minutes later she was surround by empty ice cream boxes, soda cans and remnants from the fridge, did the idea start to loose its appeal. Swallowing hard, she picked up the glass with green swirls and little purple chunks in it and stared at it. Losing her nerves she dumped it in the sink and picked up her cell phone and hit the speed dial.
"Hello Jacques?...Yes, this is Emma Frost. It has been a long time hasn't it?....I need a favor....Yes, but I would look at it as a personal favor to me if you would do this. A very lucrative favor....Excellent, I need several ice cream sodas to be sent up to the Academy....ice cream sodas....Thank you, dear. Oh and Jacques? Have the chef throw in a recipe for it will you? See you in fifteen."
Ten minutes later a recently promoted busboy arrived at the kitchen door, holding the promised goods. Absently giving him two, hundred dollar bills and telling him to keep the change, Emma stored all but one of the glasses in the freezer while reading the note the chef had included. "Amazing, just ice-cream and soda."
Pouring the drink into one of the school's cups, she added a dab of whip cream and a cherry. Satisfied that her secret was safe, she took it upstairs to Jubilee's room, which had became dead silent after she entered.
"There you go Jubilee." Emma waited expectantly as she eyed the drink. "Go on."
Jubilee, sighed, took a small sip and smacked her lips in appreciation. "Hey! This is good! Thanks Emma."
"You're welcome dear. And now, we're going to let you rest. Come children." Motioning for them to follow her, she led them out of the room and shut the door softly. "Sleep well Jubilee." Emma walked down the hall intensely proud of herself, and didn't hear the quiet "Yes!" as Jubilee realized that Emma had forgotten the oven mitts.
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45 hours, a silver bell, and a trip to Toys-r-us later…
ding-a-ling-a-ling
"Madre de dios! Can't someone get her to shut up?"
"Eeeemmmmmmaaaaaa!"
Emma sighed for what seemed the hundred time that day and moved as far away as possible from the door to continue her phone conversation.
dingdingdingdingdingding
"Ah think we should shove that stupid bell down her.."
"I'm thirsteeeeeee." Jubilee's pitiful wail traveled down to the rec room where the rest of the team had gathered to recuperate. Hank had flown down for a day to check on Jubilee and confirmed the other doctor's assessment that Jubilee did indeed have the chicken pox and since then the team had spent the majority of their time keeping her busy. Sean had managed to escape from the Academy and was now firmly holed up at the mansion in Westchester where he was now swearing up and down to Emma that he had important work to do there.
Emma glanced over her shoulder towards the stairs and hissed into the phone. "Don't give me that crap Sean, your first duty is to the kids and I have been stuck with Jubilee for over two days. TWO DAYS. If you don't get your Irish butt back here within the next four hours I am going to hurt you so bad....."
dingdingdingdingdingdingdingding
"Paige will you please get that?!?" Emma glared at the blond girl who only shook her head.
"No! Ah got thuh last time. It's Ange's turn."
Angelo got up and began to back away. "Nu-huh, nope. I did it before then. I got stuck playing that stupid frog game for over and hour. My duty is done."
"Jonothon! Monet! Would one of you please go check on her? I'm a little busy right now."
Sighing, M got up and resolutely walked up the stairs like a man on death row. "I hope you realize that for the past 247 times she's rung the bell and we've checked on her she's been perfectly fine. Who knew she could get even more annoying?"
*Poor gel,* Jono shook his head in sympathy at M's retreating back. *she forgot to take some stuff to arm herself.* He nodded at the pile of 'jubilee gifts' which consisted of movies, comics, magazines, new CDs and various video games that Emma had gotten when she realized that she would have to keep a bedridden Jubilee occupied for over two weeks.
"Sean! Don't you dare hang up this phone so help me....sure I bet Hank needs to talk to me.... Oh, hello Hank. I sincerely hope you have some good news for me." Emma tapped her foot impatiently as he tried to elaborate a point. "English Hank....oh dear God....tell Sean to get over here immediately, I can't deal with it on my own. Goodbye." The phone dropped from her shaking hands as she looked at the rest of the team in horror.
Paige got up from the couch and helped her to sit down. "What is it?"
"Jubilee doesn't have the chicken pox, but rather a mutated strain of it, which means..." Emma trailed off and took Paige's arm and pointed at the little red dots already beginning to appear.
"Uh oh..."
************************************************************************
The time 0700 hours. The place: the Academy for Gifted Youngsters. The mission? Feed, medicate and entertain five chicken pox ridden cranky teenagers.
"This is impossible." Emma moaned, nearly sobbing into pillow as Sean woke her up. Her eyes were bloodshot, her blond hair greasy and stringy, and dark circles under her eyes courtesy of a total of 3 hours of sleep that night.
"Have faith Emma!" Sean grinned at her and shoved her in the direction of the bathroom. "It won't be too much longer before they get better."
Emma just stared at him in disbelief. The man's cheerfulness was bizarre, uncanny and totally freaky. If it weren't for the fact that he was actually helping her she would suspect he was a Skrull. And even then she wouldn't care as long as it was helping. One week down and she was already ready to roll over and die, the only thing stopping her was the fact that she actually felt bad for the polka dotted children. Sort of. Enough to stop her from running screaming into lala land, anyway.
Washing her face, she quickly dressed and went downstairs where she got the trays set up. Glasses of apple juice were poured; bowls of cream of wheat made (by Sean of course! Have you people not seen Emma cook? :)); red Jell-O dished out, and within twenty minutes all of the trays were ready. Carefully balancing the five trays between the two of them, Emma and Sean navigated the stairs to the two rooms where the team was staying. The boys and girls had each been given a room since Emma had flat out refused to run all over the floor catering to them. This way, she only ran between the two rooms catering to them.
"I'll take the lads." Sean said quickly before Emma could say anything and ducked into the boys' room armed with only a grin and some flavorless food.
"Only a fool." Emma said to herself as she braced herself for the upcoming onslaught. It wasn't going to be pretty.
Several days of forced 'togetherness' had not improved the tone of the room. Three single beds had been placed as far apart from each other along one wall, facing the TV and all of its accessories. Monet had managed to create a tiny circle of calm in the otherwise cluttered room, and was currently watching the morning news. Paige had insisted on bringing in her laptop and was typing away at it, hunched over the screen as if her life depended on it. Nestled among dozens of stuffed toys lay Jubilee, who was thumbing through her stack of comic books looking for something to read while listening to her Discman.
"Morning girls, sleep well?" Emma stepped over a prone stuffed elephant and handed the trays to them, straightening the blankets and pillows as she maneuvered between the beds.
"Barely tolerably actually. How much longer do I have to put up with roommates?" Peering suspiciously as the white mixture in the bowl, M pushed her food away. "We're sick, the last thing we should eat is gruel and reprocessed horse hooves."
"Gross!" Jubilee spat out her mouthful Jell-O on the tray and shoved it away. "Get over yourself M, we're all sick of each other and this room and these OLD games…"
"Will you shut up?!?" Paige screeched at her and flung her bowl at Jubilee who ducked. The red Jell-O smeared down the side of the wall and landed with a wet splat on the floor.
"What the hell did you do that for?" The 'victim' glared at Paige who armed herself with another pillow.
"All you've done is talk. Talktalktalktalktalktalktalktalk. Are you sure that isn't your mutant power because I sure as hell think…" The pillow in Paige's hands exploded in her hands as a few well aimed paffs hit it, sending up a huge cloud of feathers.
"See what I've had to endure Miss Frost?"
Emma however, had retreated into a safe little place in her mind where there were no sick teenagers, no mutant chicken pox, there was life after Jell-O, and she was able to sleep for ten hours a night without interruption right after a long hot shower.
The three girls stared at Emma who had sat down on the floor and was rocking back and forth. She had a smile on her face and she was humming softly. Jubilee poked her experimentally and when she got no response, poked her again.
"Dudes, I think we broke her."
Paige looked at the others and then padded down the floor to where Sean was singing campfire songs to the suffering boys.
"Uh Sean?"
Sean paused in the middle of his rendition of 'The wheels in the bus go round and round' to look at her. "Aye lass? Care to join us?"
"No! I mean, I think Miz Frost has uh…taken ill."
Concern blossomed in the Irish man's face as he trotted across the hall to where Emma was planted. Smiling indulgently, he lifted the woman up and gently held her. "Looks like she needs a break. Will you girls be okay?"
The three just nodded and watched in silence as Sean bounced down the stairs humming tunes, Emma's head bobbing up and down on his shoulder. Once the two adults were out of sight, the girls went back to bed and snuggled down under the covers. M slipped in GI Jane in the VCR and the three girls fell asleep watching Demi Moore doing sit-ups while hanging upside down.
"I could do that…" M mumbled just as she fell asleep.
"Liar." Was the last thing uttered in the room as Jubilee drifted off, and soon nothing else could be heard except for the occasional snore and a Navy seal barking orders.
______________________________________________________________________________
A week later….
"I don't wanna."
"You need the medicine to get better. Hank fixed it especially for you."
"It tastes yucky." A bright red tongue was stuck out at the offending medicine pusher.
"I'll make you an ice cream soda if you take it."
The offer was carefully thought over before a mouth was grudgingly opened. "Fine."
Sean carefully spooned the medicine in Emma's pouting mouth, and she grimaced at the taste. "That tastes so horrible. It's amazing how I got anyone else to take it."
Smiling, Sean just carefully tucked Emma back into bed and went downstairs to make her the promised drink. Life, he thought to himself, was pretty darn good. He had managed to survive a week and half of getting infected and now only Emma was sick. Once she was better…Sean grinned in spite of himself. Walking into the kitchen he began to get out the ice cream of the freezer when he noticed that the team, who had come down to breakfast, staring at him.
"What?" A sick feeling wound round his gut as he glanced down at his arms and saw the telltale little red dots. "Oh boy." Fighting the urge to scratch he let himself be led upstairs to his bed where his hands were firmly wrapped in oven mitts. Five teenagers in charge. Sean sighed. It was going to be a long, long week.
-FIN-
Yeah I know…mutant chicken pox, a singing Sean…I don't have an excuse for it! J