Paste standard disclaimer here: I don't own the X-men, but the OCs are all mine. This isn't for profit, it's for fun. But please, don't steal my stuff. I'm happy to share if you ask.

I'm not spending a lot of time reintroducing characters here, so if you'd like to know the backstory, it's important that you read "Wisps of Smoke" and "Where there's Smoke..." "Just a Spark" and "Fatherhood" will also provide some additional context, but aren't really necessary for the plot.

If this is your first time reading, I'll let you know that I love reviews, and it often spurs me to write more quickly. I also welcome any PMs with questions and ideas about the story's progression. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Jaleena chewed on her thumb nail as she stared at her computer screen. She had never been patient, despite her best efforts to at least try to be. She checked the time again. Remy was fifteen minutes late. With a groan, she pushed herself back in her desk chair, running a hand through her curly black hair and staring at the ceiling tiles. While he'd never been punctual, he was also rarely this late for their morning meetings.

She and Remy had been trying to carry on a long distance…what was it exactly? A flirtation? A relationship? Even though they were still technically married, she tossed out that label almost immediately. What did you call an insane attraction, but no touching? A lot of reminiscing about old times, and shameless flirting? Oops, who could forget the clear lack of trust on both sides? Oh, and toss in the fact that you have a really pushy kid together. That about summed it up.

It had been difficult for them both, but they'd managed well in the two months since she'd left the X-Mansion after helping with a unique student situation. Their communication mostly involved an early-morning for him/mid-afternoon for her video call. If his schedule allowed it, they might have another phone chat or at least a few text messages before she went to bed at night. She smiled to herself, recalling the few mornings when she'd woken up to a particular romantic text message that he'd sent the previous night before he'd gone to sleep. They were making progress, but they had a ways to go.

It had certainly been hard—trying to juggle both of their busy schedules as teachers to carve out time for each other, and she had to admit that the situation did make her nervous. Did she trust him? She began nibbling on another nail, her pinky this time. Of course she did—well, she did a little. The problem was that she still didn't really know him. They had been apart for 16 years, and they were both very different adults than they had been as teenagers. She knew trying to get to know each other with an ocean separating them was difficult, but she was also very aware that it was much easier for her than it was for him.

During their time apart, she hadn't dated. At all. It had been a form of self-inflicted penance for leading him to believe that she had been dead all this time. Well, that and she hadn't wanted to open herself up again. Losing her family had just been too difficult and had taken her too long to recover from. Remy, on the other hand, had moved on with his life. He had dated—a lot—if her daughter Jubilee was to be believed, and she knew first hand that he'd been involved in a several-year long relationship with one of his fellow X-Men. Even when he had been a teenager, Remy LeBeau just wasn't the sort of man who remained celibate for long. Even when he was on his best behavior, there was something about him that made women throw themselves at him.

Groaning, she folded her arms on the desk and rested her head on them. What was taking him so long? Her mind began to race in a completely different direction. What if something had happened to him? Sitting back, she shook her head. No, Jubilee would have called her. Or Hank or Rogue or Xavier. He was probably fine. She began to bite the nail on her index finger, caught herself, and sighed. There went another manicure. Keesha would kill her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the dinging of her computer screen. She quickly clicked on the "Accept" button that had popped up. She let out a breath of relief when his face appeared on the screen. He obviously had just woken up as the room was dark and he was propped up on some pillows in bed. He was shirtless and his long auburn hair was swept over one shoulder to spread across his chest. "Sorry, chere," he began. "It was a late night last night, and Remy slept through his alarm."

A small thrill went through her as it did every time she heard his Cajun accented voice. Refocusing on the conversation, she arched an eyebrow at him, "Late night, huh?"

He grinned at her. "Yeah. Remy had ladies chasing after him all night," he teased, winking at her.

She couldn't help but chuckle at that, deciding to tease back rather than be goaded into jealousy in such an obvious ploy. "Did Jubilee and her girlfriends try to chase you down to braid your hair again? Or did they want to use curlers this time."

He laughed and shook his head. "No. De kids wanted to do a late-night capture de flag session, and de boys wanted me as deir captain."

"Ahh," she said, leaning back in her chair, the grin still curving her lips. "Did your team win?"

"Of course not," he scoffed. "What kinda father would I be if I didn't help Jubilee win?"

She just rolled her eyes. "Uh huh," she said, not convinced. "I'm sure it was all about you 'letting' the girls win."

He just winked at her and scooted up in the bed a bit, giving her a better view of his broad, tanned chest. She barely kept herself from sighing dreamily at the lovely view. There were benefits to his tardiness. Since he was a late riser and they spoke rather early for his standards (8:00 a.m. was "the crack of dawn" according to Remy), he often was still in bed when they talked. Secretly, she loved those days. It meant something to her to be the first one he spoke to in the morning, not to mention the fact that he looked incredibly sexy with his hair mussed and still blinking sleep from his eyes.

He must have noticed the way she was looking at him, because a slow smile spread across his lips. Luckily, before he could say whatever he'd been thinking, he was interrupted by a banging on his door. He muted the computer and seemed to have a conversation with someone at the door before he sighed and repositioned himself in bed, making the screen bounce. It was only a few more minutes until there was more bouncing and Jubilee joined him in the bed, waving her hands and talking a mile a minute.

"You're still muted!" Jaleena laughed.

Remy clicked a button and she could hear them. "Can you believe dis?" Remy was dramatically complaining, "Remy only get to talk to you once a day, and dis one jus' think she can interrupt. Dat's not fair. How is a man supposed to romance a woman with dis pipsqueek always horning in?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder. "Come on, I waited like 20 minutes or something."

Jaleena laughed. "See, Remy? She was being considerate. It's not her fault you overslept." She laughed at his pained expression and addressed her next question to her duaghter, "So Jubilee, tell me how you kicked your father's butt last night."

Jubilee grinned and launched into details about the previous night's battle. Jaleena spent the remaining 40 minutes of the call watching them bicker and argue over the retelling of the story. By the time they ended the call, she felt light and extremely happy. While she enjoyed her time alone with Remy, it was an unexpected treat to get to watch the two of them interact. She blew them both a kiss as she disconnected and gathered up the items she'd need to teach her 2 p.m. class. She had just started writing the week's assignments on the board when her students started filing into the room, talking about what they'd done over the weekends. Violet came in with a group of students and fluttered to the front of the room, and Jaleen felt some of her good mood dissipate.

Violet had grown increasingly anxious after the death of her husband, Crake. She had always been the most dramatic of the group, but it was different now. She was more quiet about her fears, often letting them build up before sharing them with anyone. Her brows were drawn together now, showing that something was up. They had been close once, but since she'd lost Crake, the only ones Violet seemed to let in were Lee and FireStar. Jaleena hated the distance, but had long ago accepted that it wasn't something likely to change.

Jaleena set down the dry erase marker and turned to her friend, "Hey Vi, what's up?"

Violet's wings fluttered nervously, and she was wringing her hands. "I'm not sure. I know someone is off the coast requesting to speak with you. Laurel asked me to cover your class for you so you could check it out." She looked over her shoulder at the students, a worried frown on her face. "I don't know why she'd want me to do it. I'm terrible with science."

Leena patted her friend's shoulder. It was true. Violet was terrible with science. If Ore, the headmistress of the school, had sent Violet, then whatever was off the coast of the island wasn't good news. "I'm sure you'll do fine, Vi. You never give yourself enough credit." She showed Violet her lesson plans, said a few words to the students, and headed out the door and down the long winding hallway. When she reached Ore's office, she was surprised to see the rest of the team gathered there already. Immediately, she felt the remainder of her good mood vanish.

"What's going on?" she asked as she stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind her. She frowned when she saw Violet's son Lee sitting at Ore's desk, his eyes closed in concentration, and his hand resting atop an old communication radio. As a mutant with the ability to manipulate sound waves, it was likely he was the first to have realized someone was trying to contact them.

Ore sighed and rubbed at her temple. "There's a call that's come in for you. She won't speak to anyone else."

"Who?" Jaleena asked as she moved closer to the desk.

Ore exchanged a glance with her husband Joey before answering. Taking a deep breath, she replied, "Terravin."

Jaleena's brow drew into a scowl. After the last battle they'd had with an opposing mutant group that had included the defeat of their leader, she hadn't expected to hear from them again. Especially so soon. "What does she want?" She asked, "Revenge for Onyx?"

Lee shook his head, opening his eyes. He had jet black hair and looked so much like his father had at his age that her heart ached to look at him. "No. She just wants to talk to you."

"How do you know that?" Laurel asked, and then she frowned. "I thought she hadn't said anything since asking for Leena. Is she talking to you? Lee…" her voice took on a note of warning.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Really, Aunt Laurel. It's fine. She doesn't know I can hear her even when the radio is off." He looked back at Jaleena again and his face took on a more serious expression. "Trust me, you are going to want to talk to her."

Jaleena sighed and held her hand out for the old-fashioned microphone. Pressing the large button on the handle, she said, "This is Jaleena Greyson. Who am I speaking with?"

There was some static before an unnaturally high-pitched voice replied, "Greyson, is it? And here I expected you to have gone back to your other last name. Things not working out so well with Remy?"

Jaleena ignored the jibe, "What do you want?"

There was static again, but for a longer span of time. Finally, the voice returned, "You need to come out to the boat. I need to speak with you."

More glances were exchanged in the room. "I don't like it," Ore said. "It's too dangerous." Several others nodded in agreement.

"We've never been able to trust her," FireStar said, "Or any of them. If you go, I'll go with you. I owe that witch." Her lime-green eyes with a slitted pupil narrowed with the words.

"I agree," Joey broke in with his deep, burred voice. "It's too risky to send you out there alone, and we cannae all go and leave the children undefended."

"Well, I don't like the idea of her coming here either," Jaleena responded. "So we'll have to come to some sort of compromise." She pressed the button down on the microphone again. "If you have something to say, Terravin, say it now."

The response came immediately this time, "This isn't something I'm going to say over a radio. It's going to have to be face-to-face."

Ore sighed before asking, "Lee, is there anything that you've heard that implies she might be up to something?"

He shook his head, "No. She really does just want to talk to Aunt Leena."

Ore nodded. "Okay, the south beach then. She can come ashore but doesn't leave the beach. We'll all be there to stand guard. Leena, before she gets there, I want a full perimeter check to make sure there isn't anything else going on that shouldn't be. Lee, you stay inside. It's your job to make sure none of the students or other teachers find out anything is amiss. Got it?"

Lee nodded, and Jaleena compressed the button again. "I'm not coming out, but you can come ashore. We'll meet you on the beach on the south side of the island." She let go of the button and looked at Lee. "Disconnect us, please."

He nodded and the static cut off abruptly. Jaleena reached into her pocket to pull out a rubber band. She twisted her hair into a braid and followed the rest of the group out of the building toward the thin strip of sand that circled the island. She stepped forward, away from the rest and closed her eyes. Concentrating, she sent out a small burst of air molecules in every direction, noting exactly where the molecules bounced back when they hit something. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, but she ignored it. Whoever it was, they could wait. When she opened her eyes, she shook her head at the group gathered behind her. "I think Bruce has a group of students out running drills on the opposite end of the island, but nothing else is out there. Just one boat. If there's anything beneath the water," she shrugged, "that's the only thing that could catch us by surprise."

Ore nodded and glanced around. "Let's all be ready. Just in case. Firestar, I want you keeping an eye along the coast for anything that tries to creep out of the water. Let's fan out, people."

With that, everyone moved back, forming a loose circle around Jaleena. She crossed her arms under her breasts and looked out to see, watching as a small boat made steady progress toward her.

Remy closed his computer and elbowed Jubilee, who still sat next to him on the bed. "You better get," He said, "You already late for class, and Remy not going to be your excuse dis time."

She smiled toothily at him, completely ignoring his comment. Instead, she flopped to the other side of the bed so that she faced him. Resting her elbows on her knees, she set her chin on her fisted hands and said, "Sooo…how are things going?" She wiggled her eye brows at him.

Remy just rolled his eyes. "Dey'd be goin' a whole lot better if you'd quit inviting yourself to dese morning calls."

Jubilee just grinned, unabashed. "Don't you realize it's good for me to see you two interacting? I mean don't you think it's weird that I don't ever get to see the two of you together? Come on. If I stop joining you on these calls—and mom loves when I do, by the way—I might get some sort of stunted development where I don't know what a healthy relationship looks like!"

Remy threw a pillow at her in response. "Yeah, because your adopted parents didn't have a perfectly normal and healthy relationship. Dey were perfect, Remy happen to know dat for a fact."

She pouted, hugging the pillow to her stomach. After a moment, she grew serious. She bit her bottom lip and then asked, "Seriously, though. Are things going okay?"

He smiled, seeing the worry in her eyes. She'd been part of a scheme to get them back together during Jaleena's last visit to the mansion. He reached next to the bed, not having had a chance to have his morning cigarette yet. He took his time as he pulled one out and flicked a lighter, waiting for it to catch before answering. On a long exhale of smoke, he raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "Remy still getting up dis god-awful early for dese calls, ain't he? What does dat tell you?"

Jubilee grinned and bounced off the bed. "Good," she paused at the door to grin back at him, knowing he'd taken his time to reply on purpose. She pulled the door open halfway and said, "How about you don't screw it up, then? I hate having to fix my own father's romance problems all the time." She had just managed to pull the door closed when she heard the thump of another pillow hitting it.

Remy smiled and took a few more moments to savor his cigarette before he got up and headed to the bathroom to shower. He was happier than he'd been for a long time. The distance was enough to make him want to pull his hair out, but he could also see the good in it. He and Jaleena had been able to share a lot about what they'd been up to during their separation, and having a computer between them somehow made it easier to talk about the more difficult times-especially when she'd wanted to know about some of his past relationships. They could focus more easily on trying to get to know each other better considering that every time they were together in person, he wanted to lay hands on her: sometimes to strangle her and other times to do more pleasurable things to her. Still, they'd decided that they'd make sure Jubilee saw her at least once a quarter, and that left another month before he'd get to see her again. Frustrated by that thought, he pulled his hair back into a ponytail and shrugged on a leather jacket.

Luckily, Storm was taking a group of students to some planetarium on a field trip, so he only had one class to teach today. That left his whole afternoon open. He smiled and ran a hand over his jaw, feeling the stubble there. That was about the only benefit of Jaleena being so far away; he didn't have to shave every day in an effort to protect her sensitive skin. As he thought of her, he pulled his phone out and sent her a quick text:

thinking of u. sorry we got interrupted. no plans later. can u talk 3 or 4 ET? want to see you again.

When she didn't reply immediately, he glanced at the clock and did some mental math. It was amazing how quickly one could become accustomed to adding five hours to the time. She'd still be in class, so he'd check his phone again after his class. Whistling, he set it on his desk and grabbed his keys as he headed out the door of his room, already looking forward to the afternoon.