A/N: Oops, so did not mean to take forever in updating. If it's any consolation, this isn't the only story I've been neglecting… No? I didn't think so. Anyways, I'm back with another chapter. I hope you'll like this one. It starts off with Jean and then gets back into the Scott/Rogue stuff. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution.
Chapter 10:
Jean swirled the contents of her coffee cup absently, too lost in thought to notice that she was actually sloshing the creamy brown liquid everywhere.
Five days, she thought. Five whole days!
"Grey, earth to Grey!" a voice sounded urgently in her ear, but she ignored it, until it finally exclaimed, "Jean! Jesus Christ, snap out of it."
Coming to, she looked up to see her lab partner mopping up her mess with the flimsy paper napkins of the coffee shop they were sitting at.
"Oh!" she said, realizing what she'd just done. Quickly, she turned to a nearby table and grabbed its dispenser—theirs was out now. "Sorry, Peter, I… sort of got lost in thought."
"More like drowned in it," Peter grumbled.
She looked up to apologize once again; their eyes met, and suddenly they were sharing a laugh.
Jean discarded the napkins along with her barely drunk from coffee and came back to sit at their table.
The two of them were taking a break from school work after being locked away in Dr. Connors lab for the past few hours—extracurricular summer research project it was, the doctor still demanded a hundred and ten percent from his research assistants. Except their break wasn't much of one since all Peter seemed to be able to talk about was the bizarre spiders Dr. Connors was using in his genetic experiments. He'd asked her more than once what she thought would happen if they got bit by one; to which she responded, "Eww, gross!"
Truthfully, her mind wasn't on science experiments or anything else school related, really. Jean couldn't stop thinking about a certain older, gruff mutant.
"Ok, who is it?" Peter asked after silence settled between them.
She widened her eyes at him. "Who's who?"
Peter gave her a look that said, 'I'm on to you.' "Who is this guy who's got your head in the clouds all of a sudden?"
"There's no guy," she answered quickly. But despite her protestation she was sure her cheeks colored, a sure sign of guilt.
Her lab partner sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, looking smug from beneath his—Wait a sec, he's not wearing his glasses, she thought. Peter's blind without them.
"Are you wearing contacts?" she questioned as much out of curiosity as it was a means to deflect.
Peter uncrossed his arms, fidgeting his hands instead. Nervous. Uncomfortable. She wondered at his reaction. "Yes…" he stated hesitantly. She opened her mouth to ask more, but then Peter changed the subject back to her.
"So, this guy… Scott, I presume." She must have given herself away with a look, because the next thing she knew Peter was wincing. "Oh boy… not Scott?"
She shook her head quickly. "It's not like that. Logan's just a friend—"
"Wait a minute. Logan?" he cut her off, incredulous. "That big lug of a guy you hang out with; the one who only responds with a total of two one-syllable words: grr and roar? This is about that guy?"
Jean raised an eyebrow at Peter's description of Logan. "Logan's a good guy. And he's just my friend."
"Ok… Fine, what's going on with your friend?"
She chose to ignore the sarcasm in his tone, instead sighing over the fact that she may have ruined their friendship. "I haven't seen or heard from him in five days."
"Is he missing?" he asked concernedly.
"No, no, he's at home." She'd checked with the Professor. Logan had returned home after seeing her and hadn't left Bayville since.
"Ok, so…"
"The last time he was here, I did something…" she said slowly, looking down into her twisted together fingers. "I… invaded his privacy; found out—" Nothing, Jean, you found out nothing conclusive. "—stuff. Now he's mad at me."
"Did you apologize?"
She thought back on the moment. The touch. The opening of her mind to his. His thoughts. His wishes. Desires… And then, after. The look on his face. Betrayal. She hated herself for her moment of weakness. She'd seen the look of distrust on Logan's face as he fled. To think she'd lost her closest, her best friend because she couldn't control herself… Jean was so angry. With herself.
"I tried," she said. And he'd accepted it. Still she hadn't seen him in days.
Peter sighed. "It was an accident?" She nodded yes. At the moment, she'd only wanted to be closer to Logan, to know what he knew. She hadn't been thinking clearly. Obviously. "Then if he knows you and he's the good guy you claim him to be, then he'll get over it. Maybe you should reach out to him…"
Jean sensed the hesitation in his voice. "But?" she prompted.
Peter shrugged his shoulders as if to say, 'No buts,' but, a second later he said, "I don't know… maybe a little distance is for the best."
She gave him a quizzical look at his contradictory advice; there was more to it, she was sure he had more to say. But at the moment, Peter decided to stop being so forthcoming.
"Maybe," she said noncommittal.
She longed for a change of subject so she did so. "So, what's with the new look?"
It wasn't just Peter's glasses that were missing, but his shyness was gone, too. Her fellow student was exuding a confidence of late that hadn't been present in the almost year that she'd known him.
He looked flustered, shifty again, at her question. "Don't get me wrong, you look good both ways," she corrected quickly. "But this is nice, too."
"Uh…." he stuttered.
"Oh, I know!" Jean exclaimed.
"You… you do?"
"Yes," she said firmly. "You're trying to impress a girl, aren't you?"
He sighed. "Sure."
"Well," she said, standing up, waiting for her lab partner to follow suit. She threw an arm across his shoulders when he did so. "Any girl would be lucky to have you, glasses or no. You can tell Ms. Watson I said so."
"Uh…"
She threw him a sidelong look. The blush on his cheeks told her she was right. She squeezed his shoulders as she started guiding them back towards the science lab, encouraging, laughing lightly.
"Reach out to her," she echoed his advice. The advice she planned on taking herself.
Distance wasn't an option for her at the moment. Jean would not lose Logan over a mistake.
Scott laughed at himself; standing up in the waist-deep water after having wiped out on his board.
"Scott!" Alex shouted from a far-off distance. "You ok?"
He turned to see his brother paddling on his own surfboard. "Fine," he yelled back. "Break-time, you coming?"
Alex waved him off. Scott could see him readying himself for another wave. He shook his head good-naturedly and started to walk towards the beach, feeling great. Trust his brother to put him in a good mood without even trying. Well his brother and the lovely weather out today.
Being outside after being stuck inside for days was the refresher he needed. Scorching sun, combined with the ocean breeze, it was impossible to stay down on a beautiful day like today.
As he approached the spot where they'd decided to spread out, he spotted the source of his previous melancholy. Rogue. She was lying on her stomach, head cradled in her hands, sleeping for all he knew with the sunglasses covering her eyes. She looked relaxed; she'd opted out of the surfing lessons for today.
Just as he'd known would happen, they had not gotten one second alone to talk about the kiss they'd shared the night before.
God, that kiss… he thought wistfully. Ok, it wasn't just a kiss, more like a full-blown make-out session. Still, it had been amazing. To hold her like that. To have her so unbelievably close. It had been… wrong.
He sighed. Rogue was right. Despite not having spoken to Jean for a week, she was still his girlfriend and he cared about her. But, with that said, what the heck were these feelings he was having for Rogue?
His eyes involuntarily travelled the length of her body, clad only in a simple black, one-piece swimsuit; he shivered before he forced his eyes away. Ok, so desire was one feeling. But he knew it was more than that. He felt a connection to Rogue, one unlike he'd ever shared with anyone else. Even Jean.
Rogue got him. She understood what he wanted most in the world, his hopes and dreams. Shared them, even. It sounded cliché, but Rogue was his match. His—
Don't, Scott. It doesn't matter what you think, she doesn't feel the same…
Right. Head hanging low, he closed the distance between them. Trying to recapture the happy, nonchalant feeling he'd just had, he greeted Rogue with a loud, "Hey!"
She rolled over, clearly startled. "Scott, Jesus," she breathed out.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly, seating himself on his towel next to hers. Babbling, he said, "Man it's hot out here. The sun's really coming down hard. I hope you're wearing sunblock. Jean wouldn't be happy if she knew you'd skipped out on it."
He didn't miss the grimace on her face at the mention of Jean. Scott could have kicked himself for his blunder.
"Ah'm wearing sunblock," she assured. "Except for tha top of mah back, ah couldn't reach."
He glanced at her bare shoulders, across her back. Picking up the bottle from the sand, he said, "Turn."
She shook her head. "Ah don't think that's ah good idea," she denied.
"And I don't think skin cancer is a good idea either."
She huffed, but did as told. He squirted some of the white cream into his right hand. When Rogue pulled her auburn hair over her shoulder to reveal the smooth expanse of bare skin, a little pink from the sun already, he thought maybe he should have agreed with her. Touching her might not be such a good idea.
"Scott?"
"Yeah, sorry," he said, practically jumping in the air.
Gingerly, he reached out to her creamy skin. She shivered upon the initial touch of his fingers; he wondered if it was a good shiver or a bad one. He continued when she didn't protest. Scott pressed his hand against her back, moving back and forth, lightly rubbing the cream into her skin. He heard her breath hitch, like she didn't dare breathe. Scott knew how she felt; the simple gesture was making his heart race.
Control, Scott, control, he silently chanted to himself. Rogue was his friend, nothing more. Friend, Rogue, that's all.
"All done," he croaked out a minute later. He sat back on the towel and Rogue turned back around, not quite meeting his gaze.
"Thanks," she murmured, hugging her knees to her chest.
They sat in silence, the air between them thick with unsaid words until he could stand it no longer.
"Rogue," he began. Her eyes darted towards his and then away. "I wanted to say… Well, I wanted to say I'm sorry. For last night. I was out of line. And I don't know what came over me."
She nodded. "Ah'm sorry, too, Scott."
"It's just, I… felt—" he said, frustration winning over.
"Don't, Scott. Let's not go there, ok?" Rogue said; her sparkling green eyes met his, pleading with him to put this past them.
He sighed. "Ok," he agreed. Not wanting to.
"It's just that Jean, I really care about her, Scott. And she loves you, you know?"
He knew. He just didn't know how he felt about Jean anymore.
"Call her," Rogue urged, reading him as if she were the telepath of the three.
"I will." And maybe he would. Maybe all it would take was the sound of his girlfriend's voice to set him straight. After all, he still hadn't heard from her. Maybe the distance thing was messing with him.
But, a voice in his head spoke up, Don't they say 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'?
Good question…
That's it for this chapter. Hope to update soon. Who knows when that will be, we'll see. Anyways, hope you'll let me know what you think. Thanks!
Thanks also to everyone who's been reading and alerting; and to those reviewing: sailingships123; Kristina; WriterHorse32; and whylime.
On a quick side note, my friends through my other account have somehow convinced me to do a crossover story with Supernatural, X-men, Criminal Minds, and Doctor Who… Don't ask me how, lol. Would anyone reading this be interested in seeing something like that? Let me know.
See ya all soon!