The pink room was no more. The wallpaper had been shredded, the carpets covered with clothes, and the bedspread thrown into the closet. Marie surveyed the damage that her miniature temper tantrum had caused the room. Xavier wouldn't be that happy with her, but then again, since when had she ever cared?
You did at one point, a little voice reminded her. You cared for us all. Marie looked up, suddenly alerted to the fact that somebody was trying to make their voice sound like her thoughts. She slowly got up and walked to the door. She forcefully pulled it open and slammed it into the wall. Jean stood behind the door.
"Your tricks aren't going to work on me anymore," Marie said, slamming the door back into her face. Jean's hand went out in front of her, allowing her a good look at the room. The horror showed on her face as she surveyed the damage done.
"What did you do?" she asked in awe.
"I've removed the examples of Xavier's past. You like?" Marie said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. Jean continued to survey the room and click her tongue in dissatisfaction. Marie decided that now was the time to take matters into her own hands.
"Get out," she demanded. Jean swung her hair around her head and started towards the door. Marie looked at Jean as she left, then noticed something somewhat odd about the situation. "Jean, come back here."
"Yes?" Jean asked. She sat down in a chair nearby the stripped bed. Marie looked over her a second time. Jean's hair was cut short just over her ears. Her piercing eyes were now dull and almost listless. Her stomach slightly bulged out from her red thick-strapped tank top.
Marie tried to think of a decent way to word her next question, but she couldn't. Finally, she just let the words roll of her tongue, hoping that Jean wouldn't be offended. "Are you pregnant?"
Jean looked bewildered for a minute, then smiled weakly. "Yes." she stated. Marie took a sharp intake of breath. She could still remember all those lectures they had gotten from Xavier about teenage drink, pregnancies, and drug using. She thought she had been the only one ever to break one of his rules, but apparently not. Jean was the only one in those lectures to furiously nod her head and practically applaud at the end of every one of Xavier's statements. And now she was pregnant. That wasn't the Jean that Marie had grown up with.
"Scott?" Marie asked, not holding her breath. She already knew the answer to the question. Jean gave her another weak smile.
"Yes," she said. She placed her hand on her belly. "Second one."
"Second kid?" Marie asked, astonished. Jean was only about twenty-two right now.
"Last year," Jean started to trail off, a tear evident in her dull eye, "it was a girl. A healthy girl, born on Scott's birthday. She had bits of brown hair and my eyes and was absolutely perfect. The Professor wouldn't let us keep her though. I had to give my little Jenna to an adoption agency. I have no idea where she is." Tears were now rolling down her cheeks. "I don't know what's going to happen with this baby. I want to keep it, but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed. A baby is a lot of work and I'm not married yet." Jean continued to babble, but Marie stopped listening to her.
A baby girl, little Jenna. The Professor had probably decided that the baby would get in the way of training, the way of the supposed future his freedom fighters had. He put it before the maternal love of a twenty-one year old. And Jean would have never allowed this to happen when they were little. She was always the one who never wanted to be anything but the best, especially to Xavier. She wanted to be perfect. The perfect soldier for Xavier to model to all the perspective candidates. The clone of himself. And now she wasn't. That was probably why he'd forced her to give up Jenna.
"Was either pregnancies an accident?" Marie asked, cutting Jean off from her long speech about the probability of Jenna being a mutant.
Jean looked down at her feet. "No," she whispered. "I wanted to leave, set up a house outside of the Institute where Scott and I could live and have our children and still be influences here, but the Professor didn't like the idea. Scott didn't either. The Professor doesn't know yet. Scott doesn't want to give the baby up this time, but he doesn't want to leave. Something is going to have to give and it will probably be this." Jean patted her stomach.
Marie watched her in disgust. "You mean to tell me that you'd give up your own child for the happiness of a man who's all but controlled our entire lives?" she started. All of her emotions started to pour out of her heart as she started to yell. "You can't let him take control anymore."
"Yes I can, and I will," Jean said. She got up and looked towards Marie. "You don't understand, I've wronged, not the Professor. I owe him my life. And if you'd stuck around, you would have owed him your life too, he saved us all. And if you'd been here, you could have saved Evan. We all know you could have." She started towards the door and left the room, slamming it behind her as she left. Marie lay back on the stripped bed and sighed to herself. Things hadn't changed at all. She thought Jean might have, but she hadn't after all.
Back in the Danger Room, Scott's students were now fighting holographic monsters. Scott yelled constant reminds to them only to hit the ones that were different from the rest. Those were the ones who were killed.