Sorry folks – no humor in this one. I know, I know – you didn't think I
was funny anyway. XD
This was an idea for a story I had over what I consider to be a great topic – love in the workplace.
I've noticed in the Evo show and comics that Scott does not spend a whole lot of time with Jean's family when they are around – for example in the Dark Horizons episode at their graduation, he disappears when her family shows up.
The whole relationship between Jean and Duncan threw me – but it does makes more sense then the original 1960s comics. Way back when, Scott was afraid to tell Jean how he felt, but if Jean was that pretty surely someone else would have scooped her up (comic Warren sure gave it his best shot) – so Duncan could be a possibilty.
I have been witness to some office romances, listened to coworkers talk about their experiences and once was asked for advice about it. You'll see some notes about all that at the end of the story. What we have here is what I cooked up to explain why Scott and Jean were not dating. Was it John Grey's doing? Was he the overprotective father keeping his daughter from dating anyone at the Institute? I've had an outline for a while and now you have the dribble from my brain before you.
Some liberties I have taken in this story:
1. I've made John Grey not just a history professor (mentioned in Day of Reckoning) but also a lawyer and a head of his own consulting company.
2. From her appearance in the series, Jean's sister Sara (I found her name in the Marvel comics database websites) looks younger – since she is shorter (Ending sequence of On Angel's Wings episode when Grey family picking out Christmas tree.) I have taken a different tack and made her older.
3. I've added a couple of human characters to Jean's extended family who appear briefly in this chapter then much later.
This chapter takes place in the past – shortly after Jean and Scott's freshmen year at Bayville.
Corporate Policy – Chapter 1 – Did You Get the Memo?
"Oh, that's going to stain!" Elaine Grey rushed to the tablecloth as the two pre-teen boys ran off continuing the game of tag. The berries were easy enough to push off – it was the huge blotch of raspberry juice she fussed over.
Jean ran up saying, "I've got this, Mom. You may want to keep Mrs. Fitzgerald from running into Mr. Thomson. I think the ongoing battle of Sparky versus Twinkles is about to start again."
Elaine Grey snatched up a plate of brownies and hurried off to distract Mr. Thomson and his notorious sweet tooth – nothing like a stupid pet duel was going to ruin her oldest daughter's high school graduation party. Her younger daughter Jean folded the tablecloth up and jogged towards the house, heading towards the laundry room. She passed her cousin Kathy with her new husband Mark in tow coming outside of the house.
He struck a pose and said, "Didn't you read the new policy – that office canoodling will hit our bottom line destroying our fourth quarter earnings." Jean giggled as she passed – Mark had pegged a dead on imitation of her father in lecture mode. Kathy grabbed Mark by the ear and dragged him outside muttering, "C'mon, lover boy."
As Jean started the water in the wash tub, she hears her dad speaking to a new instructor at his college. John's line of questioning began. "So you think it's harmless to flirt with a coworker or one of your students, since both of you are single and available?"
His companion answers, "Sure, where else am I going to meet women with the hours I keep at the university?" John Grey leans forward and says, "Let's see how you feel after a couple of stories. A young man asks a female employee out to movie shortly after she begins a new job. They date twice and then she tells him she likes him but wants to keep it friendly. He takes it really poorly and begins a campaign of humiliating her in meetings and around the hallways, describing in excruciating detail how she took his heart and stomped on it for everyone to hear."
The young instructor shifts nervously in his seat while John continues. "Second story – A group of men including the head of sales are sitting around a cubicle. They are joking around, doing the male bonding thing when his wife who works in accounting shows up. She proceeds to berate him for not making her lunch and not paying the cable bill. All he can sputter out is a simple, 'yes dear.' The rest of the sales staff no longer respects him – a great danger in the cut throat world of 'top that' egos, so earnings drop and the company closes its doors."
Jean sprayed stain remover on the huge red blotch as she thinks about her father's attitude. She wonders what he is driving at.
The young instructor ventured a guess, "So you don't think dating in the workplace is a good idea?" John says nothing for a few seconds, pausing for dramatic effect to make his audience sweat a little. Jean knew this was his signal to make you realize that your question should have stayed in your head.
Her father continued to hammer home his point, "So you work long hours at a job you really like – a job you were lucky to find in today's economy. Are you willing to lose a steady income over the possibility of a relationship? One that may end because you leave the toilet seat up or the cap off the toothpaste one too many times? Say you break it off but she still wants to be that special someone for you. Now there is someone in the office you want to avoid – as if life wasn't complicated enough with the traffic and deadlines and a bazillion passwords you have to remember to get your job done. She may actually do you a favor and tell the rest of the women where you work what a down and dirty louse you are – in the long run protecting you from any other office complications."
John stands for his concluding remarks. "I have seen numerous cases like this. Some friendly advice from a very high priced lawyer. Love and the workplace just don't mix. Go volunteer at a pet shelter or hang out in the hardware store to meet women. Don't look for love where you work." He waits to be sure his reasoning makes sense to the new instructor – who seems to get it.
John then moves towards the freezer and removes a bag of ice. He smiles and says, "Now I'd better get this outside before my wife sends a search party for me."
As the two men left through the door returning to the party outside, Jean wondered if her dad felt this way about her at the Institute. It's not like the X-Men was a job or anything.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Elaine surveyed the wait staff cleaning up the aftermath of the party. Things had gone well and she was able to rub elbows with some of the more elite members of Greenwich, Connecticut society circles. She had scored an invitation to the charity benefit dinner at the end of the month and discovered a possible lead for John's consulting company. This was the proper place for her daughters to meet eligible men to marry.
Sara had dated a lot of boys in high school – now as she prepared to enter college, she was ready to date men who were as mature as she was. That meant upperclassmen at the university of her choice – Connecticut State College. It was also close enough to Yale and other Ivy League schools that Sara should meet some of the future leaders of the free world.
Now Elaine needed to think about her younger daughter. Jean had matured physically quicker then Sara – she was a head taller then her older sister. This past year she had really blossomed and filled out – no longer the bean pole too tall for any boys to approach. Puberty had finally hit the boys of Bayville as they caught up in height to Jean. Soccer camp started in a couple of weeks and Jean had formed a friendship with a girl in line at registration that also lived in Bayville. The girl was the daughter of a respected doctor so she might know the right people in the New York area for Jean to meet.
Jean had finally taken to wearing makeup and dressing nicer – maybe John was tight – Miss Monroe was being a good influence on her daughter. Elaine's priority right now was to keep that Scott boy away from her. There was no way she was going to tolerate that penniless orphan to come sniffing around Jean's inheritance as long as Elaine had anything to say about it.
Author's note: Elaine's animosity towards Scott is my own invention. As far as I can tell, there was no such bad blood in the comics.
Please read and review.
This was an idea for a story I had over what I consider to be a great topic – love in the workplace.
I've noticed in the Evo show and comics that Scott does not spend a whole lot of time with Jean's family when they are around – for example in the Dark Horizons episode at their graduation, he disappears when her family shows up.
The whole relationship between Jean and Duncan threw me – but it does makes more sense then the original 1960s comics. Way back when, Scott was afraid to tell Jean how he felt, but if Jean was that pretty surely someone else would have scooped her up (comic Warren sure gave it his best shot) – so Duncan could be a possibilty.
I have been witness to some office romances, listened to coworkers talk about their experiences and once was asked for advice about it. You'll see some notes about all that at the end of the story. What we have here is what I cooked up to explain why Scott and Jean were not dating. Was it John Grey's doing? Was he the overprotective father keeping his daughter from dating anyone at the Institute? I've had an outline for a while and now you have the dribble from my brain before you.
Some liberties I have taken in this story:
1. I've made John Grey not just a history professor (mentioned in Day of Reckoning) but also a lawyer and a head of his own consulting company.
2. From her appearance in the series, Jean's sister Sara (I found her name in the Marvel comics database websites) looks younger – since she is shorter (Ending sequence of On Angel's Wings episode when Grey family picking out Christmas tree.) I have taken a different tack and made her older.
3. I've added a couple of human characters to Jean's extended family who appear briefly in this chapter then much later.
This chapter takes place in the past – shortly after Jean and Scott's freshmen year at Bayville.
Corporate Policy – Chapter 1 – Did You Get the Memo?
"Oh, that's going to stain!" Elaine Grey rushed to the tablecloth as the two pre-teen boys ran off continuing the game of tag. The berries were easy enough to push off – it was the huge blotch of raspberry juice she fussed over.
Jean ran up saying, "I've got this, Mom. You may want to keep Mrs. Fitzgerald from running into Mr. Thomson. I think the ongoing battle of Sparky versus Twinkles is about to start again."
Elaine Grey snatched up a plate of brownies and hurried off to distract Mr. Thomson and his notorious sweet tooth – nothing like a stupid pet duel was going to ruin her oldest daughter's high school graduation party. Her younger daughter Jean folded the tablecloth up and jogged towards the house, heading towards the laundry room. She passed her cousin Kathy with her new husband Mark in tow coming outside of the house.
He struck a pose and said, "Didn't you read the new policy – that office canoodling will hit our bottom line destroying our fourth quarter earnings." Jean giggled as she passed – Mark had pegged a dead on imitation of her father in lecture mode. Kathy grabbed Mark by the ear and dragged him outside muttering, "C'mon, lover boy."
As Jean started the water in the wash tub, she hears her dad speaking to a new instructor at his college. John's line of questioning began. "So you think it's harmless to flirt with a coworker or one of your students, since both of you are single and available?"
His companion answers, "Sure, where else am I going to meet women with the hours I keep at the university?" John Grey leans forward and says, "Let's see how you feel after a couple of stories. A young man asks a female employee out to movie shortly after she begins a new job. They date twice and then she tells him she likes him but wants to keep it friendly. He takes it really poorly and begins a campaign of humiliating her in meetings and around the hallways, describing in excruciating detail how she took his heart and stomped on it for everyone to hear."
The young instructor shifts nervously in his seat while John continues. "Second story – A group of men including the head of sales are sitting around a cubicle. They are joking around, doing the male bonding thing when his wife who works in accounting shows up. She proceeds to berate him for not making her lunch and not paying the cable bill. All he can sputter out is a simple, 'yes dear.' The rest of the sales staff no longer respects him – a great danger in the cut throat world of 'top that' egos, so earnings drop and the company closes its doors."
Jean sprayed stain remover on the huge red blotch as she thinks about her father's attitude. She wonders what he is driving at.
The young instructor ventured a guess, "So you don't think dating in the workplace is a good idea?" John says nothing for a few seconds, pausing for dramatic effect to make his audience sweat a little. Jean knew this was his signal to make you realize that your question should have stayed in your head.
Her father continued to hammer home his point, "So you work long hours at a job you really like – a job you were lucky to find in today's economy. Are you willing to lose a steady income over the possibility of a relationship? One that may end because you leave the toilet seat up or the cap off the toothpaste one too many times? Say you break it off but she still wants to be that special someone for you. Now there is someone in the office you want to avoid – as if life wasn't complicated enough with the traffic and deadlines and a bazillion passwords you have to remember to get your job done. She may actually do you a favor and tell the rest of the women where you work what a down and dirty louse you are – in the long run protecting you from any other office complications."
John stands for his concluding remarks. "I have seen numerous cases like this. Some friendly advice from a very high priced lawyer. Love and the workplace just don't mix. Go volunteer at a pet shelter or hang out in the hardware store to meet women. Don't look for love where you work." He waits to be sure his reasoning makes sense to the new instructor – who seems to get it.
John then moves towards the freezer and removes a bag of ice. He smiles and says, "Now I'd better get this outside before my wife sends a search party for me."
As the two men left through the door returning to the party outside, Jean wondered if her dad felt this way about her at the Institute. It's not like the X-Men was a job or anything.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Elaine surveyed the wait staff cleaning up the aftermath of the party. Things had gone well and she was able to rub elbows with some of the more elite members of Greenwich, Connecticut society circles. She had scored an invitation to the charity benefit dinner at the end of the month and discovered a possible lead for John's consulting company. This was the proper place for her daughters to meet eligible men to marry.
Sara had dated a lot of boys in high school – now as she prepared to enter college, she was ready to date men who were as mature as she was. That meant upperclassmen at the university of her choice – Connecticut State College. It was also close enough to Yale and other Ivy League schools that Sara should meet some of the future leaders of the free world.
Now Elaine needed to think about her younger daughter. Jean had matured physically quicker then Sara – she was a head taller then her older sister. This past year she had really blossomed and filled out – no longer the bean pole too tall for any boys to approach. Puberty had finally hit the boys of Bayville as they caught up in height to Jean. Soccer camp started in a couple of weeks and Jean had formed a friendship with a girl in line at registration that also lived in Bayville. The girl was the daughter of a respected doctor so she might know the right people in the New York area for Jean to meet.
Jean had finally taken to wearing makeup and dressing nicer – maybe John was tight – Miss Monroe was being a good influence on her daughter. Elaine's priority right now was to keep that Scott boy away from her. There was no way she was going to tolerate that penniless orphan to come sniffing around Jean's inheritance as long as Elaine had anything to say about it.
Author's note: Elaine's animosity towards Scott is my own invention. As far as I can tell, there was no such bad blood in the comics.
Please read and review.