There is no way I own this, please don't sue.
An Enemy Found With the Self.
"I never really got a chance to apologize for hurting you." It's an odd thing to say, but completely natural when greeting someone back again from the dead. In some ways, it's all I could think to say to her, all I've thought about since I buried her, but when her grave was found blown open and empty, I knew she'd be back. She never stays dead for long, if she ever really is dead when we place her in the ground. After everything that's happened all these long years, I didn't want to believe she's actually here.
It's a long story, but my father recognized her from a vessel they raided, rescued her, and eventually, she was returned home. That's why she stands here with me. I knew Jean Grey best, and I know this is her.
"I heard you the first time." She smiles at me sweetly. I never figured she could hear me in her grave, but she is a telepath, after all.
"I didn't believe Logan when he said he found you." I pause before the important questions. "Where were you?" We had picked faint signals from her over the past five years, she's been gone nearly ten, but she doesn't even look a day older than when she bled to "death" in my arms. At least not until the weariness over her ordeal wipes across her face, still only aging her slightly.
"Oh, Scott, you don't want to know, trust me." She tells me quietly while never breaking her gaze at me. I can't understand what on earth she's trying to spare me. I can't help but to wonder what ever was done to her.
"I remarried, I've got kids." I break to her. Somehow, I think she knew that. She always did guess more things than I ever had to tell her.
"I know. I was sort of there." She must have been trying to contact us for so long, but only her father, poor dead John Grey, could hear her. Rachel got a vision one time, one that nearly shattered her, but Jean's father just knew. "I've been seeing somebody for a while, kind of, a very long distance kind of thing." She pauses, almost as though she's trying to lessen the sting to my heart. "He wants to get married, when I get settled. I guess I still have time for children."
"Your family's dead." I tell her bluntly. Bluntly in this kind of thing is always better than sugar coating anything. "It was the Shi'ar. Only Rachel survived."
"She told me." Her voice gets almost a growl to it. "I'll be sure to make them pay." She turns slightly, and I catch a glimpse on her shoulder of what must be something similar to the mark the Shi'ar marked Rachel with. Now I know that they must have just absolutely tortured her, but even they shouldn't be so foolish as to think she could be broken.
"Who is he?" I get around to working up enough courage to ask.
"He?" She looks at me. I'm stupid, too much time passed between that part of our conversation and now.
"The man you've kind of been seeing." I remind her. "What kind of long distance relationship has it been?"
"Galaxies. And until I set foot back on terra ferma, it was pretty open. We could do as each wanted, just as long as we touched base with each other." She shakes her head at me that I even asked. "I don't inquire about you and Emma. By the way, where is all my stuff?"
"Storage, now don't skirt the issue. Who is he?" I'm demanding now, not simply because she still has a place in my heart, but because I feel it my job to protect her.
"Why don't you find out by asking him?" She looks at me sternly. "He's right outside."
"I should have known. He always was the love of your life." I can't look at her, I feel like crying, but I just can't. "And you, his."
"But not my soul mate, Scott." She holds my hand as though to comfort me. "You got to live your life happier without me because you have Emma and the kids." She breathes slightly as though she's tired, and with the journey back she's made, I don't blame her. "I at least deserve to try to be happy."
"You know, every time he's near death, he says he sees you, that you pull him back. Is that true?" I don't really want to know, but I need to know. What is she truly? "Besides, when did you ever believe in such a thing as a "Soul mate"? I chide her.
"Yes, Scott." Her weary eyes close for a minute. "I guess I am there when he "dies", but I never believed in a complete soul mate, just somebody, for no reason whatsoever that one would be willing to do whatever to sacrifice life for."
"I've seen him with other women." I caution her, but, once again, she knows. "Are you willing to make that sacrifice for him?"
"I've seen you with other women, and I've taken that risk for you. It's nothing new and earth shattering, Scott." She looks away again. "I've been with other men."
"And I know not all were willingly, Jean, but you didn't answer my question." I know she's avoiding it. I know that look she gives me, the solid resolve to never take another life again. I've made that resolve myself all too many times and all too many times, I've failed. And… I know, so has she. I must have asked the wrong question as her brave front develops a crack, and I see a tear, just a tear, but I know the flood behind it. "Shh, baby, I'm sorry Jean, please don't cry!" I plead with her, as I hold her again.
"I'm… alright, Scott." She tells me as she pushes me away. "Just not all of my experiences were… pleasant. I'll be O.K." She assures me. I know she will be eventually, just not now.
I don't really get the chance to wrap my arms around her before she changes the subject to getting a job, maybe even returning to modeling, and bringing up the fact that it takes a lot of work to bring a person back to life.
"Jean, don't think that we are past talking about what happened to you." I raise my eyebrow at her. "And you know you always have a place here, and a job, and Hank has already gotten your death certificate retracted by claiming that you lay comatose in some third world hospital and we only found you recently." I place my hand under her slim chin. "When you are ready, I'll listen."
"Scott, I'm not the Jean Grey you knew." She tells me, but this time, it's me that already knew. "And I wouldn't expect you to ever trust me again if you knew the things I've done these past ten years."
"Does Logan know?" I quietly ask. "Jean, I know you, I know what you're capable of, but I also know that you are so compassionate and forgiving that you revived the woman who tore your world apart. Why can't you show yourself that same level of compassion?"
"Yes, Logan knows, I've shown him all of it, and he still wants me." She gets stern with me and I almost feel like we are back in time, back before I vowed to forever keep her safe, and failed. I promised myself I'd never let her die, but I was young and love struck. Stupidly making promises I couldn't keep. I remember now what time has dulled to just interesting snippets of memory. Her temper, her flair for life and the determination and drive that flashes in her eyes comes rushing back. "And lets not talk of Emma. She's a wreck just that I'm here, you should talk to her."
I open my mouth to protest her tone of voice, but a knock at the door interrupts me. It's Logan and Emma, just in the nick of time to prevent my mouth from causing me more trouble than I can deal with right now.
"I guess you told him about us." Logan asks as he comes to stand beside Jean, his boots bringing him almost to her height. "Scott, your father and his crew want to know what you want done with the ship."
"Is it badly damaged?" I ask. It's a moronic question, of course it is, whomever they stole Jean back from didn't let her go without a fight.
"Not really in good shape, no." Logan replies in his usual smart assed fashion.
"It they can, have them stash it in the hanger and come inside. If not, use one of the cloaking devices and park it out back." I tell him irately. "Tell Corsair, thank you. He'll know what for."
"Rachel wants to see you." Emma says, although I'm not sure whether she's referring to myself, or Jean.
"Wants to see whom?" Scott asks as he looks at his wife.
"You, Scott." Emma says. "Just you. She said she need you."
"Tell her I'm ready." He turns to Jean. "I'll have Logan get your clothes from storage, Jean, then we'll set you up with something Charles put away in case you ever came back. It's not much, but it's enough to get started on."
"Thank you, Scott." She says simply as she exits the room, her fiery halo illuminating the walls as she passes and another chapter begins to open.
