Dimly, in the back of her mind, she became aware of a distant beeping. Steady and rhythmic, it should have been soothing, but it wasn't. There was something about it that set her muzzy brain on edge. It was a familiar sound…why would such an innocent thing as a beep make her so uncomfortable…?
After a decade of thinking…or perhaps just a few moments, her eyes slid open and she groaned. It was a heart monitor. She knew she'd hated that noise. If you could hear it, it wasn't a good sign…or it was. Either way, it meant that something bad had happened.
But she couldn't really feel anything. Nothing at all. Except that she was floating. "Floatie floatie floatie."
In a chair a couple of feet away from the bed, Fury glanced up from the manila file he had been going through and saw a pair of dazed blue eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"Welcome back." He murmured, closing the file. He leant closer to the bed, trying to keep the familiar sternness at bay.
Her eyes slid down from the ceiling to focus on his face. Or at least half focus. "Are you with me?" he asked carefully, standing up and coming to stand beside the bed.
"Possibly?" She hazarded a guess and he bit back a smile seeing just how glazed her eyes were. "Are there any pink elephants in the room?"
Fury's nose twitched slightly and he shook his head. "No, kid. No pink elephants. Just a beat-up old Colonel and a kid who should have known better."
He watched her forehead crease as her drug addled brain attempted to work out what he just said. After a few seconds she let out a squeak of protest and narrowed her eyes at him. "Hey! I do know better! Did you say that to Pride an' Wolvie? Jus' cos I'm a captive audience-" She yawned widely. "I don' go aroun' askin' fer trouble…trouble jus' finds me…"
Fury snorted and shook his head. "Kid…" He shook his head again, falling silent. "What happened?"
"I'm going to guess that Pride beat the crap out of me. At least from what I can remember she did." Jubilee answered with another yawn, her eyes closed. "Me and my pride are going to take a lot of time to get over that. But I was already injured…do you think that counts point wise?"
She listened to the silence and opened one eye a crack. Fury was standing with his arms folded across his chest, the eyebrow above the eye patch raised high. "Kid, don't try my patience. I've got too many DNA challenged, testosterone filled idiots on my base ship right now, and they are all demanding to know what happened to you. So, what happened?"
She sighed and closed her eyes again, wondering if she feigned sleep would she get away with it. Fury cleared his throat and she sighed.
"Fine. I got jumped coming back from the gym at college. They were waiting for me near my apartment. I tried to fight 'em off…but then I got tasered, drugged and collared in about 3 seconds flat. There were too many of 'em and they knew what they were doing. I don't like getting tasered, Fury. It sucks big time. Messes up with my body chemistry so I don't know what's up and what's down." She sighed again and looked around the room with disinterested eyes. "After that they didn't even need the inhibitor collar…" After that little declaration, her eyes slid closed again and she drifted off to float in the darkness.
Fury shook his head, angry that they had taken the kid so easily. Well, not easily. Her battered body could attest to that. No matter how good Shadowcat was at fighting, there was no way she could inflict all those injuries on the girl.
Sitting back down on his chair, he absently rubbed his thumb over the name on the file he had been reading. He'd requested it a few days before, when Jubilee had been transferred to the medical wing on the base ship. The name on the folder was hers, but facts and figures never gave a complete picture. To have that, you would need to know the person. And to a degree, he did. Ever since Logan had introduced him to the loud mouthed little bratling he had kept tabs on her. Especially when she had jacked it all in to go to College and have a "normal life". Ruefully, he admitted that that was probably the reason why he was so angry at the fact she had been abducted. Taken from right beneath the noses of two of his agents.
Looking back down at the file his lips firmed again and he wondered just how much of it was complete fabrication. Both men were being brought in for a 'debriefing'. In reality, Fury was half considering just locking them in a room with Wolverine and letting them explain just why, when asked that morning, they had said that Jubilee was having coffee with one of her close friends from College. A mean feat for someone who was lying unconscious in a SHIELD medical facility.
So now, there she lay on the hospital bed, buck naked aside from the carefully arranged strips of sheeting that protected her modesty, and the bandages that covered the wounds and the incisions the doctors had had to make to save her life. Her skin was mottled with bruises, and tilting his head to the side, he began to make out the boot prints and impressions that fists had made on her delicate skin.
"So, what happened?"
Her eyes had opened again and she was staring at him. An unconscious blush flooded his cheeks as he realised she had caught him staring at her and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair before standing and moving closer to the bed.
"When the X-men realised that Kitty and Logan had been taken, and by who, we organised a full scale rescue. It took a lot of effort to find them – the telepaths had to track them through the psi-plane. Not an easy task. Then we came and attacked the compound. There was a bit of resistance, but we took them easily enough. Majority of them surrendered without firing their weapons once. None of the organisers were here though. But we have enough leads to track them down and prosecute. The bone yard out the back will give enough evidence to make sure they never get out of jail."
Jubilee watched him fidget with the edge of one of her sheets and she gave a tired sigh. "Nobody even knew I was missing." It wasn't a question, more of a statement, and it was a statement that Fury didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole.
"Fury, I may be on enough pain meds to knock out a bull elephant, but I'm not that dumb. I may not have cut off all contact with my friends…but it's not like anyone was killing themselves to keep in contact with me since I left. I wonder how long it would have taken for them to realise I was gone?"
The last sentence was said softly and he had no doubt that he probably wasn't meant to hear it.
"Jubilee…we should have known immediately. I should have known immediately. I had two agents assigned to you 24/7."
Even in her drug haze, Jubilee could have a fearsome stare. He shifted uncomfortably beneath her gaze and began to play nervously with the edge of one of the sheets.
"You had me tailed?!"
Fury gave a half smile, which faded slightly after a second.
"And I didn't notice?! Jeeze, I deserve to have the crap beaten out of me for that one." She rolled her eyes in dismay at herself.
Fury shook his head grudgingly. "Nah, kid. You don't. I said I had two guys assigned to tail you. I didn't say that they did their job. I talked to them this morning. They said that last night you went clubbing, and you were currently having coffee with a friend from college."
"Gee, I hope I had fun. Christ, I haven't gone clubbing in months!" Suddenly her eyes widened and she went to sit up, only to find herself too weak to do so. "I was supposed to have a Physics exam! Oh, man! I can't believe this! An entire year of Uni wasted! I'm missing all of my exams!"
"You can repeat-"
"REPEAT! Do you think I like going to school?! Having to deal with those vapid, self obsessed air heads that think I'm 'One of Them' just 'cos I do gymnastics? That I enjoy listening to Professors that claim to be leaders in their fields, only they haven't got a clue and are teaching outmoded and outdated theories-"
XXXXX
Outside the door to the room, the newly arrived Charles and Emma shared a look with Jean and Hank who had been outside listening to the entire conversation.
"At least we know there was no brain damage." Emma remarked dryly, leaning against the wall as they listened to Jubilee's voice raise even higher as she described the conditions of her dorm room – which was on campus. The only way Xavier had allowed her to go to college.
"Emma, that was uncalled for."
Hank hid a smile as he pushed his way into the room. The fights between the acerbic headmistress and her charge had been legendary, as had the retaliation from Jubilee. But no matter how much aggravation they had caused each other through the years, the look on her face on the vid-screen as Scott told her what had happened spoke volumes, as did the look on Jubilee's face when Emma walked in behind him. Her eyes widened and a momentary look of incredible vulnerability flitted across her face before the medication induced glaze took over once more.
"Hey Frostie."
"Jubilation." Emma gave her a nod, coming to stand by the head of the bed. "Must you always get yourself into trouble?"
Jubilee shifted slightly in the bed so that she could look at Emma properly. "What can I say, Frostie, it's a gift. And I learned from the best." With that she let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes again. Emma watched her for a few moments, keeping her own council before announcing; "I'm going to take that as a compliment."