Title: "Slip By"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: G/K
Summary: Emma contemplates at sunset.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
She watches the sun setting in a vast array of fiery reds and oranges that seem to cover the earth and thinks of a creature even more powerful than that great ball of fire that gives the earth her required sustenance to keep spinning. She hears laughter and looks below to see the young Jean Grey happily tossing her head and the descending sunrays spinning a fire that Emma knows too well that every straight, hormonal guy will want to capture with his fingers in her long, red hair. She grips her banister, her teeth clenching, as she remembers all that the Phoenix stole from her and all that that redheaded brat with the name and body of one of her greatest foes might yet take from her.
Her blue eyes blaze as they bore holes into the redhead. In the shadows, also on the ground, the Cuckoos look up at their headmistress. They want to reach out to the redhead's mind as badly as she does but will not until she gives them permission again. They whisper amongst themselves, wondering if Emma ever feels fear and what it feels like for one of the world's strongest telepaths to no longer possess even an inkling of mind-reading capabilities. "The world must be so empty for her," Phoebe comments.
Emma can't hear them, and for a change wouldn't care even if she could. The rebirth of the Phoenix is no longer the only threat to the role she has built for herself in today's X-Men. The youngster before her, the mutant girl who is much younger than she's ever known her and, Emma fears, prettier and more carefree, is a far greater threat. If she still had telepathy, she would wipe her mind so clean that no one would ever be able to help her remember who Jean Grey is or whose legendary high heel shoes she is trying so hard to grow to feel.
Emma's hand has turned to diamond; she doesn't even notice. Her eyes are still locked on the redhead, and as vicious as her glare is so, too, is her grip on her banister. The metal rod begins to break underneath her touch, but then she pauses as a hand gently touches her shoulder. She knows the touch instinctively. It's the only one she's ever felt full of love, but that love is no longer there. She destroyed it, as she destroys so much, as she kills her students, as she's deconstructed every good thing that's ever happened to her.
"I remember my promises," Scott whispers next to her ear. Emma stands, frozen not daring to move or allow herself to feel or even think lest he should somehow find out the pain still roaring in her heart. "I'll keep every one of them, Emma. Leave the girl alone; she's no threat to you."
She looks at him at last. "Of course, she's not." Her cold smirk does little to hide the truths he sees in her blue eyes.
He raises a hand to caress her face. "She's not, and no one will ever replace you." His head tilts suddenly, and she knows he's hearing somebody's telepathic voice inside his mind. She wishes she could hear it, too, and could still read his thoughts to know how much of the words he's speaking he truly means. "I have to go."
She lets him leave and turns back to the setting sun and the laughing friends down below. She'll never be a friend to most of these X-Men. She still tells herself she doesn't need friends, but as the night descends, her arms wrap around her lithe body. She turns back to where she last saw Scott and remembers his words. He still says he'll keep his promises to her, but he's already broken one. He broke her heart when he wouldn't accept her mistake with Namor, and secretly, she fears that that is the one pain, besides the loss of her students, that will never heal.
Emma descends from her balcony, going inside her room and shutting the door on the world. She only wishes it was that easy to shut the door on her heart and most especially to Scott Summers. She sits on her big, white bed for a while, clutching two pictures, one of Scott and herself together, happy in love and smiling like those children below, and the other of herself with her cherished Hellions. Then, finally, when she can hear no other sound, not the laughter of her latest students or chatter in the hallway or the jet taking off, she lowers her head and lets just a few tears slip by.
The End