Disclaimer: I don't own anything in regards to the Marvel characters. The belong to (big surprise) Marvel.
A/N: This is a sequel to Graduation: The Beginning…hope you like it. This should stand on it's own but it probably helps if you read it. And just for the record, Deanna has slight telepathic abilities.
Disclaimer: I own nothing save the story idea….everything else belongs to Marvel
A/N This is a sequel to Graduation: The beginning, it helps if you read it. Um…read and review please…it really makes a difference (and feeds the addiction!) Thanks to Jane and Ambrosia for all their help…especially Jane who gave me the idea for Deanna and her future.
The First Years
Dena giggled. The curly black-haired girl peeked over her playpen, her bright blue eyes searching for anyone that might happen to walk by. Dena, commonly known as Deanna, had quickly discovered that if she leaned over on the stretchy fence that enclosed her play area then she could easily roll over and out of the enclosure. She hadn't had many chances to use it since she had been constantly monitored by one of her many aunts and uncles, being the first baby in the house meant that she had a lot of presents at Christmas, but it also meant that there weren't many chances for mischief. Today, however, her mother had made the mistake of deciding to take a quick shower while Dena played in the pen.
*thump* Two little six-month-old feet landed solidly on the carpet, that were quickly joined by two small hands and a wiggling diapered bottom that quickly moved out the room and down the hall. The sole reason for this excursion was the fact that from the time she was able to crawl, the dark oak stairs held a special fascination for her. There was something about the smooth wood, and her mother's terrified shrieks every time she tried to go down the polished steps that made her want to master the huge beast.
Looking around for a second, Dena looked over the edge of the first step with satisfaction. Not even slightly afraid of the height, she determinedly flipped over on her stomach and started the laborious project of backing down the stairs.
From a vantage point at the head of the stairs Jubilee bit her lip as she watched her baby. Her eyes flickered nervously as she glanced at Angelo at the foot of the stairs. *You'll catch her right?*
*No problema, Jubecita. I'm not going to let her fall, first sign she slips I grab her.*
*Thanks.*
Several minutes later, Dena felt her feet hit the floor with a satisfying thud. Glancing around, she found her self alone, and smiling she looked up at the huge face of the staircase. Deciding she wanted some approval she looked up. *Momma?*
Ten seconds later, Jubilee appeared, paled at the sight of her child and thundered down the stairs, her eyes bright. Jubilee bit back a grin as she looked in to the face of her grinning child and sighed. "You, little miss, I believe were told not to leave the pen? Next time you want an adventure like that just tell Momma okay. That way we both live longer."
Dena giggled and gave her a hug, the childish hands patting Jubilee's cheeks. "S'okay."
Jubilee proceeded out the door to the backyard where she was meeting Paige for lunch, Dena carefully tucked away in her arms.
-in-
Later that night
"She did what?" Logan grinned at the sleeping child, nestled in his arms.
Jubilee nodded. " I knew she had been distracted that morning, and I kept on getting images of a big brown monster that needed to be beaten. By the time that I figured what that was, I had just walked out the room to take a shower. So I stayed and watched." She brushed a stray curl from Dena's peaceful face. "Did you know that the stinker knows how to get out of the pen? I figured it was something she needed to do, made sure she was safe with Ange at the bottom, and spent the most heart wrenching ten minutes of my life watching her go down those stairs."
Gently kissing Dena's cheek, Logan tucked his daughter into her crib. "That's our girl." Grinning, he turned to Jubilee and pulled her close. "So whatever happened to that shower?"
"Forgotten in the midst of panic."
"How about we go take that shower now?" Logan nuzzled her neck invitingly. "I'll scrub you if you scrub me…"
"Sounds good…"
The two walked out of the room, their hands entwined. Blinking sleepily, Dena looked at the retreating figures of her parents and went back to sleep with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
-in-
"Happy Birthday Squidge!" Bobby grinned at the elaborately dressed up girl, and handed her a present. "One year old today."
Dena nodded, as Jubilee rolled her eyes at the nickname. The little girl had been dressed in a frilly pink dress that Jubilee still wouldn't admit to buying, saying that it had ended up in the shopping cart as a mistake and she didn't feel like putting it back. Her hair had been pulled into pigtails tied up with little white bows, and in essence looked "Disgustingly cute" as described by her uncle Bobby.
"Tank you." Dena took the brightly wrapped gift in her chubby hands and toddled over the huge pile of presents growing in the corner of the living room in the mansion.
Bobby gave Jubilee a hug. "She's so great Jubes. You've done a great job with her, you too Logan." He nodded in Logan's direction who was trying to string up a piñata. Logan grunted, then returned to his task. Hank, Scott, Angelo and Logan had been trying to hang the papier-mâché doll for over an hour without any luck, and were on the verge of super gluing the whole thing to the ceiling.
"Listen up ese, all we need to do is just tie it up to the hook up there."
"We tired that already, remember?" Scott pointed to a crumbling patch of ceiling where a large chunk had come loose.
"Perhaps if we managed to contrive some sort of pulley and…"
"What the hell is in this thing anyway? It must weigh fifty pounds. Who filled this?" Angelo hefted the paper donkey experimentally.
Scott blushed slightly. "Well you told me to put candy and toys in it."
"What kind of candy and toys?"
"Um lessee, Tootsie rolls, hard candy, little candy bars, skittles, those cute furby things, yo-yo's, some CD's, play-doe, gold candy…" he trailed off at the looks of the other men's faces. "What?"
Beast patted him on the shoulder. "I believe the more common items in a piñata are more…cheap and light weight. Plastic jewelry, toy necklaces, a large assortment of candy."
Logan tossed down the hammer he was holding in exasperation. "I nominated Cyke here to hold it while everyone takes a swing at it."
Chuckling, Jubilee looked around the room in satisfaction. Brightly colored streamers were hung around the room, Rogue was in the process of blowing up the balloons with a helium tank and the rainbow ball of rubber were floating around the room, in the corner of the room there was a huge pile of presents, and last but not least the professor had put up sparkling lights so that the room was a picture of light, warmth and friendliness.
"Hello all!" The front door opened to reveal Emma bearing several packages. Behind her Sean was carefully balancing several bottles of soda pop and a large gorilla.
"Hi, Emma." Hugging her after she had deposited the gifts, Jubilee raised an eyebrow at the boxes. "Emma, I told you that …"
Before she could finish, Emma placed a finger on her lips. "Don't yell, these are from Jono, Monet, and Penance believe it or not."
"Penny?"
"Yeah, she stopped by my office one day bearing a slightly tattered catalogue and kept on pointing to one item. So I ordered it, and she made it very clear that it was for your baby. She's gotten a lot better. In fact we brought her today, I think she's out in the trees somewhere getting used to the place." Emma nodded over her shoulder to the large oak in the front yard.
Pausing a moment to give Sean a quick kiss, Jubilee walked out into the sunny day to the huge tree. Squinting, she peered up into the branches looking for a hint of red. "Penny?" Some leaves rustled, and Jubilee turned to find Penance standing beside her. "How are you?"
Penance blinked slowly, her face breaking into a smile as she handed Jubilee a bright red apple. *Good see you.*
Carefully taking the apple, Jubilee stared at her in shock. *Good to talk to you Penny. Thank you for the apple. How are you?*
*Happy/good. Baby?*
Jubilee nodded. *Yes, I have a baby now. Would you like to meet her?*
Penance nodded, and followed Jubilee back into the mansion. The little diva of the day, as Bobby was calling her, was deep in a serious discussion with Emma over who was the best Powerpuff girl.
*Dena?* The little girl looked inquiringly at her mother who motioned for her to come. Running obediently into her arms, Dena grinned at the new guest. *Sweetie, this Penny an old friend of Momma's."
Penny smiled at Dena who grinned in return. *Baby!*
Giggling, Dena squirmed out of her mother's arms and before anyone could do anything, had flung herself into Penny's arms.
"Dena!" Jubilee paled as Penny stood motionless, unwilling to move incase she hurt the child. The room became dead silent as everyone watched the laughing child hug the deadly mutant. Penance's skin had the fatal ability to maintain sharpness, a power that had forced her to keep everyone at arms length since she first came to Generation X.
*Baby?!?* Emma could hear Penny's confusion as Dena clambered over her, her skin softening under the child's touch, her claws forming into hands and her hair, once spikes that could slice through steel, turning into flowing strands of red hair.
"Come to Daddy." Logan said softly, picking up Dena. Exchanging glances with Jubilee, Logan took Dena over to the construction that had been erected for the piñata.
*Baby, okay?* Penny's blue eyes were wide with fright, her hands trembling slightly as they morphed back into her original form.
"Dena is okay. Are you?" Concerned Jubilee reached out touch Penny, her finger getting sliced open on contact. Ignoring everyone's protest, Jubilee just sucked on her finger gazing thoughtfully at the mutant. In the background she could hear Logan calling everyone in for cake, glancing down at Penny she smiled. "Don't worry Penny, it'll be okay."
-in-
"Fascinating." Beast swirled the contents of the test-tube thoughtfully, gazing into it's dark red contents.
Penny shifted uncomfortably on the hospital bed, tearing the sheets as she moved slightly. Sitting in a chair next to the bed, Jubilee held Dena in her lap with Logan standing behind them.
"So what's the deal Hank?"
"Well Penance's mutation has always seemed be based on self-protection, which is a viable hypothesis considering her prolonged exposure and abuse with Emplate. It would seem that our Penance has finally allowed herself to trust someone enough to let down her defenses so to speak."
"But when I tried to touch her I got cut." Jubilee held out her bandaged finger.
"Yes…well." Beast frowned peering at the mutant in question over tented fingers. "No-one knows the true morphology of Penance or whether or not she was human to start with, but I feel that Penance has shown her intentions with Deanna. To be honest Jubilation the very fact that Deanna was able to circumvent Penance's deadly ability is beyond lucky. But I also believe that once Deanna was able to pass these defenses then she can do so again and again. Go ahead and try it, do you mind?"
Jubilee winced, her arms unconsciously tightening around her daughter. "And if you're wrong?"
"I don't believe that I am, but if I am then we can extract her within seconds."
*Logan?* Turning to her husband, Jubilee looked up at him her face expressionless.
*She's our girl, Darlin. If anyone can do it, she can.*
Nodding, Jubilee let Dena clamber out of her arms into Penny's shaking arms. This time the change was almost instantaneous, the softening of the skin, the formation of the hands and Penny gently touched Dena's face. Giggling with delight, Dena flung her arms around Penny her chubby arms hugging the mutant for the first time in years. *Penny!*
-in-
Two years later
Light broke over the forest, streams of light hitting the balcony and it's occupant. Jubilee breathed in deeply, sinking even farther into her meditation setting up the shields she would need for the day. It had become habit much to her surprise, centering her personality far more than anything else could have. A small smile crossed her lips as a cool breeze lifted and played with her now long hair. As the breeze left, Jubilee returned to her previous state, calmly preparing for the day.
In the next room, Dena blinked sleepily and rolled out of her new grown-up bed and padded softly into her parent's bedroom and out onto the balcony where her mother was sitting. Yawning, her small mouth opening wide, Dena sat down in the lotus position next to her, mimicking the woman's breathing. Ten minutes later the little girl began to squirm slightly and flopping down on her stomach, she pulled out some crayons and paper put there for just such an occasion. Brightly colored drawings formed under the industrious hands and several sheets had been used when Jubilee brought herself back to reality.
Jubilee looked at the drawings with interest. "Morning sweetie, what's on the agenda for today?"
"Cats. Cute kitty cats. Nice cats." Dena blinked artfully at her mother, sending an image of a kitten batting at a ball of yarn.
"Cats huh? Any in particular?"
Dena nodded emphatically, pointing to a scrawl on one of the pages. "Black kitty."
"What would we call him?"
"Her. Ace cause that's the best card to have. 'S lucky."
Jubilee's eyes narrowed. "Has Uncle Remy been teaching you poker again?"
"Read em an weep." Dena giggled and climbed into her mother's lap. "I won ten bucks off him."
"Oh really? What did you have?" Jubilee asked curiously, making a mental note to have a little talk with Remy about his teaching sessions. Remy only guarded the president part-time now, having built a loyal team that both he and Jubilee trusted implicitly. With the free time, he often peeked in to see how Jubilee and the rest of the X-men were doing.
"Four in a row." Dena wiggled as Jubilee deftly braided her hair into two braids that just brushed her shoulders. The once curly hair had straightened, much to the chagrin of all of the women in the house.
"A four of a kind? What card?"
"Ace."
"Good job girl!" Logan wrapped his arms around the two women in his life, tickling them with the stubble on his chin. "We got training in a few minutes, we should go."
Jubilee nodded and kissed Dena's cheek. "Alright, be good."
"'Kay."
"And no more adventures into the pond okay?"
""Kay."
Grinning at the memory of Dena tying to find out where the fish lived in the pond, the three of the them walked downstairs to where most of the team was waiting. Giving Dena one last kiss Logan and Jubilee jogged off to the Danger Room leaving her in the kitchen.
*Baby/Dena, good?*
Dena looked up at her babysitter, a job title that Penny had assumed two years ago when they had discovered that Dena was impervious to Penny's mutation. "Good. Play now?"
Penny grinned and took the little girl's hand. *Play.*
-fin-