Standard disclaimer. Marvel owns 'em, I don't. I just sneak around and grab them every once and a while to play with in my stories. Note: There are some cases of dialogue that are taken directly from the Origin series. Those are not mine. Those words belong to the very talented writer Paul Jenkins.

Author's note: Okay, just to attempt to cut back on the amount of flames, here's a little note. Yes, this is a Wolverine and Jubilee story. No, Jubilee is not thirteen here. She's twenty-one. Therefore well above the age of consent. Also, this is a romance, my very first Wolverine/Jubes pairing. Just giving everyone that doesn't like the pairing enough time to bail out without having to waste their time reading only to give me a "Eww, that was just disgusting having them paired together!" review. And as it is my very first try writing Jubilee, please be kind if I don't get her character down just right. Also, I am not a doctor. I have no clue how to perform any type of on the field medical first aid. I just worked with what I thought would be right for the moment.

Okay, long author's note finished. It was written in its entirety over at the Wolverine and Jubilee Interactive Hub (www.wolverineandjubilee.com ). Thanks everyone who read it there and gave me words of encouragement. You don't know how much that means to me. Thank you Yez, as always, for listening to me flesh out story ideas over our mail conversations. Many of the later goings on in the story were inspired by what you put in for suggestions.

Thank you's over, here's the story. ~regular text~ is thoughts, ~italic text~ is telepathic speech.

Lost in Time

ice princess deluxe

Jubilee ran through the wooded area surrounding the mansion, ignoring the branches that left little scratches over her face and arms or tugged at her hair. Even the smallest bit of pain was preferable to what she was feeling now.


~Stupid, Lee! Why do ya do this to yourself?~ she mentally chastised herself, wanting to paff something just to release the anger that was boiling up in her system. She finally made it to one of her favorite spots where she could be alone and sat down, taking deep breaths to calm herself.


Why was she mad? Well the answer and cause lay within one entity: Logan. She snorted back a bitter bark of laughter, thinking of him by using his 'adult' name. It seemed that name was forbidden in her vocabulary, seeing as she was forever doomed to be his sidekick and nothing more, even though they hadn't been together on a team for several years now. All she was allowed to call him were variations of his codename, be it Wolvie, Wolvster, or just plain Wolverine.


"Wolver-jerk should be more like it..." she grumbled, absently kicking a loose stone from the nearby creek bed that ran through the back of Xavier's property. Things hadn't changed since she decided to take up Charles' offer of becoming an X-Man again after so many years. Her room was the same, albeit barer in decor. No rock star bands or glaring colors adorned the walls. Her boom box didn't shout out punk rock style music at the ungodly early hours of the morning either. Instead there was a quiet calmness to her living space, organized instead of disorderly, clothes (and boy did she have a lot!) put carefully away on hangers instead of jammed into the closet. She tried hard to show everyone that at the age of twenty-one she was a more mature woman than the thirteen year old that had left to join GenX or the eighteen year old that had gone off with no real plan of action to L.A.


Her room wasn't the only thing she kept up to prove that she was older. Living with the glamorous X-Women such as Rogue, Ororo and Jean, she had strived to make sure her appearance wasn't that of a disheveled mall rat in a yellow trench coat. She ditched some of her outlandish outfits for conservative yet alluring pieces of apparel, wore sneakers or loafers in the mansion instead of rollerblades and silently chewed bubblegum instead of loudly popping bubbles in the middle of a mission briefing.


Yet for all her efforts, everything was blind to Wolverine. All these years and she still held a torch for him, even when it was blatantly obvious he still thought of her as a kid, as just some tagalong that worshiped at the pedestal she had set him on. Didn't he see that she loved him? Didn't he know how much more she was than just a 'kid'?


Jubilee kicked harder at the pebbles, thinking back to what had caused her to run to her thinking spot in the first place. Of course it was him, that was plain. They had been in a Danger Room session with most of the safeties turned off. Wolvie had been hesitant to do so, but a flick of Jubes' short cropped black hair and an insolent pop of her gum had him vocally overriding the controls.


"I warned ya little girl," he said, dropping into a battle crouch as the first robotic opponents made themselves known. His claws sprang out from between his knuckles and he scanned the area to get a general sense of the place.


"Don't call me a little girl, Logan," she answered back, still chewing furiously on her gum, bright auras of light emanating from her hands as she worked up her plasma pyrotechnics to what she liked to call 'stun mode'. If things got hairy later on, she would stick them on 'kill'. Until then, the paffs she created were relatively backup for Logan's claws. They fought hard, finally ending the session poorly. Jubes wasn't hurt, but Logan had taken a dive towards her as a robot attacked, getting the whole of the hit meant for her. She crinkled up her nose as she smelled the stench of burnt cloth, followed by the smell of blood and hot skin, then the intoxicating scent of man and clean sweat that was covering her.


"You okay?" she asked, trying to push him off her so she could look at the damage that was surely already healing.


"I just got shot with a laser. You think I'm okay?" he growled out sarcastically, wincing as he rolled fluidly into a sitting position, his back away from her. She winced at the look in his eyes. "That was a careless move Jubes. Ya coulda gotten killed."


"But I didn't," she retorted, realizing that she had swallowed her gum when he had tackled her. "I can look after myself."


"Oh yeah? Then what do you call that? If this was on the field, ya would be the one with the hole in yer back, not me. Jeez kid..."


"Look, willya stop calling me that?" she demanded, the scowl on her face matching his.


"What? Kid? Well, yer actin' pretty much like one lately, so I guess ya deserve me callin'..." he didn't finish his statement because she dove at him, ramming her index finger against his solid chest.


"Look. I'm twenty-one. I stopped being a kid many years ago. You just haven't seen it like that." Logan let out an exasperated breath and ran a hand through his mop of sweat soaked hair.


"Oh, so it's my fault, huh? Maybe if ya would start actin' different then I wouldn't see a need ta call ya that." Jubes' indigo eyes narrowed and she stood up as Logan stood up. They were pretty much the same height, so it didn't take much for her to get into the feral's face.


"You want different? I can give you different," she ground out from gritted teeth. Without warning, she pressed herself close to him and grabbed the sides of his face in both hands, kissing him thoroughly on the lips, refusing to let him go. Suddenly, he stopped struggling and she felt large hands rest on her shoulder blades and the small of her back. She relaxed into their warmth, her bones melting like the finest of wax under the spell of his lips playing on hers, taking in all the sensations of being held by the one man she could probably ever love: the scent of him, all at once musky and overwhelming, the feel of his sideburns brushing against her cheeks, his hands skimming over her back, the sound of his sharp intake of breath as she nipped at his bottom lip, the taste of him on her lips.


Then as fast as it began, it was taken away from her. Logan bodily pushed her away, breathing hard. He shoved a hand into his hair, the other in the back pocket of his jeans, looking for some place to stick them where they wouldn't be tempted to reach out and grab for her again. Jubilee stared at him, made a move to come closer to him.


"Stay where ya are," he warned, breathing hard. "Just stay put."


"What was wrong Logan? Didn't you like that? I know I did." That brought a low moan from his mouth, she didn't know if it was from desire or frustration.

"That's the problem. I liked it too much. Jubes... Jubilation...this ain't right, you an' me. Not like that." Now it was Jubilee's turn to sigh in frustration.


"Look, I know how hard it is to get stuff through that thick metal skull of yours, but get this. I. Love. You. Yeah, you, the big hairy dude in the front row. I have for the longest an' it's time you finally realized it. Now what's so wrong with that?" she stopped staring at him and started pacing around the suddenly confined space in the usual cavernous Danger Room. Why had she gone and said that out loud? Surely she hadn't mean to, but kissing him...


"You get this now. We're friends. Yer my best friend, Jubes. I don't want anything messing with that. I don't know what I'd do if that happened. I'm too old for ya for another."


"Oh please. You're too old for every woman out there! You're older than dirt, Logan!" Logan stopped her tirade with one hand held out.


"That's exactly my meaning. I've got years on ya an' I don't want to...aww hell Jubes! Yer just not old enough an' that's it!" he bellowed. Jubilee stared at him hard and felt the unbidden tears start to burn behind her eyelids.


"Fine. But you have this all wrong. I'm not too young for you. You're too young for me, seeing as you're acting like a little boy when I put my heart in your hands, hoping you won't drop it." She took a deep, shaky breath. "I've never been disappointed in you Wolvie, but today just might be the first time." With that, she walked calmly out of the room, then walked down the hallway towards the large elevator that took her up to the ground floor, then out the back door. Only when she was sure she was alone did she start to sob and run.


***


Now alone, she let her anger go in small, concentrated paffs, flipping the pebbles over and leaving scorch marks in their wake.


"What would make Logan see that I'm not too young for him? What could make him understand that I love him no matter what?" She thought and thought, but nothing came to mind. She knew how stubborn her Canucklehead was, after all.


"Oooh dammit! If only I could get him to see!" she finally shrieked, letting go of her newfound maturity for once and enjoying a thorough temper tantrum. She stopped though when she felt as if she wasn't alone any more.


Turning around swiftly, she gasped as she saw the dark skinned man floating several feet in the air.
"Gateway. What do you want, dude?" she asked, wiping at her cheeks to get rid of the residual tears. As usual, he didn't answer. It seemed the only time he had talked to her was so long ago in Australia.

Without warning, he raised his arm and started swinging the familiar object over his head, going faster and faster. A portal opened right under her feet and she barely had time to shriek as she fell.

***


Jubilee rubbed her sore behind as she stood up. ~Guess I would have had to land on my butt, huh?~ she thought, thinking how her new white shorts were now ruined with dark brown dirt. ~Ah well. At least the tank top isn't ruined...~ Then she realized where she was. From the alleyway she was standing in, she saw the bright light ahead that showed a busy town, wooden horse drawn carts laden with goods littering the streets, men in suits and ties, women in clothing reminiscent of her 1900's era history books back in college. Dazed, she made her way out to the sidewalk, only to be leered at by a man and gasped at by another woman. The muttered phrase 'loose virtues' caught her ears and she saw that many, okay, all of these women were covered from neck to wrist to ankle in cloth. Not knowing what to do, she bumped into another young girl, not even thirteen by the look of it.


~Woah, she looks a lot like Jean!~ she thought, instantly forming an apology.


"Gracious, are you all right? Did you get attacked?" the girl asked, looking at the small scratches covering Jubes' forearms and cheek.


~Okay Lee, this is yer chance to get help in this crazy place. What do ya do?~ "Yes," she said tearfully, fluttering her eyes into a downcast gaze. "They took my clothes and money...I have no place to go..." The girl gasped and put her hand to her mouth.


"Lordy be! Well, I'm here to be picked up for service at the Howlett Estate, maybe they have need of another," she offered, taking out a delicate plain white square of linen and handing it to Jubilee. Jubes wiped her eyes and then the bit of dirt on her face with it.


"Thank you," she said quietly, her mind racing as to where, or when she was at. ~Dang Gateway! What did he throw me here for?~


"My name is Rose, by the way. What's yours?"


"Jubilation," Jubes said instantly, somehow knowing that Jubes wasn't going to cut it in this era. ~Hoo kay. Prim an' proper time, no friends to contact, no money, no nothing. Jubes my girl, somehow I don't think we're in Westchester any more.~