A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! Here's the next chapter. Work is finally slowing down long enough for me to get some time to write a chapter here and there. Especially today… we are so… slow it isn't even funny. Okay maybe a little. Any who… here's the next chappie! Enjoy.
Chapter 6: Living the Life
(This quote is from one of my favorite actors.)
"Dream as if you'll live forever, and live as if you'll die today." – James Dean
"I got a telephone call today," Scott announced over breakfast. It's been three months since our first kiss and it seems that at every turn we're either brushing up against one another in the smallest of spaces or pressing the other one to do more than just touching in close corners.
"Yea," I say not really paying any attention I am more concerned about the characters in my book than whatever Danny Godfrey has to say about the fishing season this year and how it'll be worse than last year.
"It was from Jubilee," he says like ripping a band aid off. I stop reading but don't look up from my book. It's as if I am frozen, still in the moment, as I try to fully register what he's saying to me.
"How did Jubilee get our phone number? We only had it put in last week," I ask in sheer disbelief as I finally look up at him. He seems to be registering everything I say and taking dedicated notes. It momentarily peaks my curiosity.
"She's an X-Man Marie, you must remember how easy it would be to access the phone companies of our home towns and access the telephone company's files. I doubt it took more than two hours for her to find me," Scott explained in his normal simple fashion. I hated him then. So calm and so casual like this was something we've been expecting all month. Like a book he ordered online or that wonderful afghan Cynthia, Danny Godfrey's wife, has been working on for me since we arrived.
"Well besides Jubilee's sudden ability to locate our whereabouts what did she want?" I ask as I waved my hand around dramatically. I know I am being snarky and Jubilee doesn't deserve that. She's a good girl and an even better friend. I should be ashamed at being so rude about her, but I am upset and when I am upset I say things I don't really mean in ways I don't really mean.
I was doing my best to stay calm and to not panic. If Logan had somehow discovered my sudden departure with his current male rival I could bet everything we owned that he would be here on the next flight and I would be on the next flight out of Alaska back to New York before you could even say Mississippi.
"They've discovered something rather unusual back in New York. Someone claiming that they have the Phoenix and are willing to negotiate a trade," Scott explained calmly still and I could tell that even though his voice was even his mouth was tight and his hands were clenching underneath the table.
"The Phoenix is dead Scott. Logan killed her; there were at least fifty witnesses to her death. We took her body back to the mansion and buried her in the grave we made for her after the Lake incident. I was there when we did it. I watched them put her in the ground," I stated matter-of-factly knowing what I was saying would probably sting some of Scott's old wounds but I couldn't let some prankster ruin whatever it was we had going. I wouldn't lose Scott already, especially not to a dead woman.
"I am well aware of that," he again stated firmly with that same calm, "she was just informing me of what was still going on with Jean."
"Why would she call you Scott about some prank some idiot made about her? It's sick and twisted and shouldn't have been brought to your attention," I stated just as firmly. I could feel my ears burning from the stupidity of my friends and family members.
"Because the offer was made by the Hellfire Club and when they make contact with anyone it usually means business. They are not ones to fool around with," he affirmed and I couldn't help but raise a surprised eyebrow.
I have known about the Hellfire Club for some time now. During Scott and the Professor's funeral a beautiful blonde woman had come up to me. She was dressed in all white, who at the time I had thought highly inappropriate for the occasion, and her eyes blue eyes seemed rather cruel and mean for a woman as young as herself. But they lines leftover from tears shed only minutes ago humanized more than anything else.
She had approached me I assume since I was seated on the front row and probably knew Scott and the Professor better than most. She had grabbed my upper arm causing me to jerk in surprise. But when she spoke I couldn't help but wonder who she was. Her voice was dazzling even in all her pain.
"Is it true?" She had asked me in that mournful voice of hers "is he really gone?"
"Yes," I whispered I wasn't really sure who she was talking about at the time.
I didn't know if she meant Scott or Xavier. But I knew deep down that both had meant something to her at one time or another. She seemed to take their deaths harder than the rest. It was like the last piece of her was finally broken and she didn't have anything left to tie her down to this world. All I wanted to do then was reach out and hold her to me and tell her that everything would be alright, just like my mother used to do me.
It was after she had let me go and had disappeared into the crowd that Storm approached me and had asked me what Emma Frost had wanted with me. I told her of course and at the time I hadn't realized what was really going on. Storm had nodded her head and seemed to search the crowd for the woman in white but she had clearly left the party.
It was the next day that I decided to figure out who Emma Frost was and who she was associated with. I was surprised to find out that she was once a student at Xavier's and like my old friend Pyro had deflected to another team. Her Team it seemed was a group of high class, power hungry mutants and a few worthy humans who had a sort of collection going. Every one of the Hell Fire Club Members is either of great weather and prestige or a very powerful mutant. All mutants were Alpha's and a few Omegas' it would seem.
"I am aware of the lengths in which Hell Fire Members go in order to acquire their newest members. Especially after one has either been removed or deflected on their own terms. But it doesn't seem to me that they would call up the X-Men and ask them to trade Jean in for money. I mean they have plenty of wealth to go around. Jean's a level five mutant for sure. I wouldn't trade her in for just anything you know?" I stated and I noticed the slight surprise on Scott's face as he realized that I knew more than I should about the Hell Fire.
"I met a lovely woman at your funeral," I began to explain, "an Emma Frost. She was rather upset over your death."
"I wouldn't have thought Emma to have been there," Scott admitted openly and seemed to introvert for a moment. I waited for him to continue with a response but when I noticed one was not to be received I decided to prompt him.
"Why would Emma Frost, the second high ranking official in the Hell Fire Club, be crying at your funeral Scott?" I questioned as I looked at him skeptically.
"Just because I have always loved Jean and only Jean does not mean I didn't date other people when I first arrived at Xavier's," Scott stated with a sigh and I knew there was more to the story than he was letting on.
"What is with you and telepaths?" I asked trying to break the some of the tension in the room. He didn't respond and I didn't prompt him for an answer this time.
"So what is the HFC trying to trade Jean in for? I mean they have plenty of money and there isn't a level five mutant left at Xavier's unless you think Emma wants to trade Jean in for you," I said with a wry smile. He seemed to take the hint at my lack-luster joke and crack a grin with me as well. But it quickly faded in to a slow dipping frown that started at the corners of his eyes and ended at the corner of his mouth.
"No, not me," he said a little too ominously for my taste, "I am useless to Emma Frost in any way of advancement within the Hell Fire Club. I am a more personal key player one that would not be brought out so openly for show. No, she seems however to have found quite the interest in you."
I blanched at that. My eyes grew wide and my expression went from one of humor to one of blatant confusion.
"What in the world would they want with me? I mean I don't even have my mutant abilities anymore. I can't even chop wood for crying out loud! Jean would be a much better pick than me!" I confessed with a shriek. Then I realized that, that's probably why Scott hasn't kissed me since that day three months ago. Jean is the better pick than me. She's better at everything than me. Even dead that woman could turn my life upside down.
"Marie," he said with a sympathetic sigh that meant for me to brace myself for the worst, "the cure is failing and it's failing fast."
I think I might have fainted after that…
