Part 10 - It Pricks Like Thorn
For Charles Xavier, one-on-one sessions with Juliette LeBeau were quite literally like beating his bald head against a thick brick wall. The girl was stubborn; she mistrusted him and the vast majority of his X-Men; she was only cooperating with his attempts at getting into her head--in explicit violation of her father's orders to both of them--because the Professor had promised that, by doing so, he would be able to put a harness on her powers.
But she had a mind that seemed to be completely encased in concrete. It wasn't like Remy's pre-Antarctica static interference; it was an almost exact copy of the mental fortress he retreated to afterwards.
After a month, Xavier was just starting to feel the structure weaken but he was fairly sure it was not of his own doing. It was probably a combination of things that was bringing Jules' shield down: depression, loneliness, home-sickness, guilt. Exhaustion was certainly a part of it, the young teen constantly looking tired and haggard, drained by the intense training she was subjecting herself to, as well as her constant efforts to just keep from an emotional breakdown as her cousin Simon entered into week five of the coma she blamed herself for entirely.
Yes, Xavier was going to have to talk to Ororo again to make sure the girl was eating and sleeping properly. It wouldn't do anyone any good for her to work herself into a collapse or explosion.
"I think that is all for today," The Professor stated, leaning away from the slight teen and rubbing his sore forehead. Juliette opened her smoldering ruby eyes, frowning and quite obviously frustrated. Offering a weak smile, the telepath soothed, "We are making progress. You must have patience."
"Ya, ya," She grumbled, wincing as she pushed herself to her feet. After swaying precariously for a moment on sore, overworked limbs, the girl regained her balance and complained, "You say de same thing every time and every time I sit here for hours and never feel a thing. How is dat progress?"
Xavier offered a smile, gently stating, "You will have to just take my word for it."
"Fricken telepaths," The girl grunted, turning on her heel and stomping out of the richly decorated office, "Always gotta be all spooky, can't ever just talk normal..."
"Hey! Jules! JULES!! WAIT UP!!" It was Billy, again, Billy Sweet running towards her down the hallway as he awkwardly juggled an armful of thick textbooks. Juliette rolled her eyes at the antics of her friend.
When he finally caught up, panting and finally losing control over the mass of books that went tumbling to the floor at Jules' feet, Billy offered a sheepish grin and asked, "How was Spook Time?"
"Same as always," The girl sighed, trying to hide her flinch of pain as she kneeled to help Billy gather his books, "Whatever he's doin' ain't working and I'm supposed to be patient... hey, I'm gonna blow off math and head to town. Wanna come?"
Frowning nervously, Billy replied, "We're not supposed to go without an escort. I've heard some pretty bad stories about the mutant hatred in this town."
"Scared?" Jules challenged coldly, mockingly, shoving books into the boy's arms and already turning her back on him. She needed to get out of the Xavier Mansion and she wasn't about to let some stupid rule keep her from doing so. She had never been one for obeying the rules.
"Hey! Wait!" Billy called, jogging to catch up and still struggling with the armful of books, "I never said I was scared! Or that I wouldn't go! Just... uh... I wasn't sure you knew the rule."
"Know it, hate it, gonna break it," The girl chanted, her eyes fixed dead ahead as the back of her skull began to throb. She had recently started getting headaches after her sessions with Xavier. She hadn't told him, afraid that he would stop or go slower if he knew what he was doing, and she hoped that they meant she actually was making the progress he professed. However, that didn't make them any less annoying or painful.
Class was not a good place to deal with the headaches. The more people that were around, the worse the headaches got. Sometimes, it felt like her skull was cracking, like razor sharp thorns were trying to bore their ways through the cracks...
"Let's go," She announced, grabbing Billy by the elbow as she stealthily slipped down an abandoned hallway.
xxXxx
Remy wasn't sure if he was upset of grateful over his father's decree that no one within the immediate LeBeau family would be going on jobs until their situation started to turn for the better.
On the one hand, he would welcome the distraction a job would bring, welcome anything to keep him from thinking about Simon and Juliette.
On the other hand, he probably couldn't concentrate long enough to pull off a successful job. Besides, Remy knew that he was needed at home.
Henri and Mercy were absolute wrecks and he had hardly seen either outside of Simon's hospital room. Nico and Ani were just as bad, devotedly keeping watch over their brother whenever time would allow. Unfortunately, they were still expected to attend school and go home to sleep and eat.
Remy had put himself in charge of his young nephews, refusing to allow either to let his grief and worry affect his physical wellbeing.
Christien wasn't doing so well either. He seemed lost without Jules, his partner-in-crime and closest friend. He was hurt that she'd left when he needed her, but also... angry. The Élan just didn't understand her self-enacted exile and was starting to show obvious signs of resentment because of it.
On top of that, Jean-Luc's temper was volatile to anyone outside the immediate family, Tante hardly found the time or energy to cook, Theo's stomach was always growling, and Emile just didn't talk much anymore.
And Remy missed his daughter.
Remy wanted to fix it.
He wanted his family back. He would do anything for this nightmare to end.
xxXxx
"Have you seen Jules?" Bobby Drake asked as he popped his head into Ororo Monroe's greenhouse loft.
The Economics teacher was rocking and humming to her son, James, trying to get him to go down for an afternoon nap. Airily, the white-haired woman replied, "I have not. Has the girl taken to skipping lessons once more?"
"Seems like it," The Iceman answered, entering the humid, fragrant room and taking a seat beside Ororo on a low wooden bench, giving James' chin a light tickle, "She missed my class again, and Billy was gone, too, so I figured she must've dragged him along... can you talk to her? She doesn't really listen to anyone but you and Logan."
"I will try," Storm answered quietly, soothing her cranky son with more soft touches, "But she is troubled. I have made many efforts to counsel her through her guilt and depression, but I do not believe I have gotten through."
Raking long fingers through his short brown hair, Bobby responded, "Well, at least you can talk to her and get more than pissed off grunts... she really doesn't like me."
Smiling lightly and laughing beneath her breath, Storm reminded, "You did call her a criminal... and not in the nice way she prefers."
"The little brat lifted my wallet!" The Iceman cried indignantly, making James start screaming and earning himself a glare from Ororo. The brunette sheepishly hung his head.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," The Professor stated, smiling warmly as he wheeled himself into the greenhouse loft. With a gentle mental caress, he quieted James' cries almost instantly, sending the boy into a peaceful slumber.
Storm smiled back, "Not at all, Professor. To what do I owe the visit?"
"I'm afraid this is concerning young Juliette," He answered calmly, very seriously.
"What a coincidence," Bobby chirped, "Did she skip your class and steal your wallet, too?"
The Professor frowned. "No," He stated flatly, "Not that I know of..." His hand twitched on the armrest of his wheelchair, like he was fighting the urge to reach in his pocket and check. Pushing down the inclination, Xavier continued, "I believe Juliette is skipping meals again. Logan has had to kick her out of the Danger Room on more than one occasion when she has worked herself into exhaustion, and her roommate has informed me that she rarely sleeps. I was wondering if you could attempt to speak with her again."
"Of course," Ororo replied, growing very worried about the lovely little girl. She put up a hard front, but she trusted Storm, let her see the tender child she truly was. Storm didn't want her to lose that innocence.
Feeling out of place, Bobby stuck his hands into his pockets. His eyes went wide when he failed to find his wallet yet again. "Son of a bitch..." The Iceman gaped.
xxXxx
"Ok... what do you think of Electron?" Billy Sweet asked, jogging alongside Juliette as he read potential codenames off the list he'd been compiling. Most of the other students at Xavier's school had codenames and he'd gotten it into his head that he should have one as well so he'd spent most of the day getting Jules' opinion on the ones he'd thought up.
"Predictable," Jules sighed, disinterested. She was starting to feel a little better now that she was out of the mansion but her body still ached terribly. And she still couldn't get Simon out of her mind, the guilt, the worry, the shame. It was like a constant drilling right at the base of her skull and it never gave her even a moment's rest... not that she thought she deserved a moment's rest...
Frowning, Billy went back to his list. With a smirk, he struck an obscenely ridiculous hero pose and joked, "What about The Conductor?"
Jules suppressed a loud laugh into a derisive snort; Billy was happy that he was making some progress in his repeated attempts to get his friend to smile.
"Name yourself dat and I'll disown ya," Jules almost-laughed as she walked down the empty sidewalk, thankful that the town was literally almost deserted that afternoon.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Billy joked back, slinging his arm around the raven-haired girl's slim shoulders.
She didn't even push him off, staring out at a world dimmed by thick sunglasses for a long while before offering quite seriously, "Sparky."
Billy pouted, "Not funny."
Jules actually smirked, quite obviously fighting a full on smile. "Fine," She stated, "How 'bout Galvan? Like Galvanization?"
The boy blinked in confusion, gaping, "Uh... I don't know what that means."
Jules rolled her eyes. "So I guess Ampère is out of de question..." The young thief mused, pausing before listing off, "Circuit would be a good one, or Battery, or Volt, or Rod, like lightning rod... I'd suggest Redox, but I don't feel like explaining it... and Billy Watt is cute."
"Those are really good," Billy stated, pulling away from Juliette to eagerly add her suggestions to his list, making a small note to look up "redox," "Ampère," and "Galvanization" for himself later so he could impress Jules with his knowledge of the terms. When he was through with his additions, he turned back to his friend. "What about you?" He asked brightly, throwing his arm around her and fitting her snugly into his side once again, "Are you gonna pick a codename?"
Jules shrugged, watching some cars pass in the street as she answered, "I guess. Haven't really thought about it."
"Let's think of it now," Billy proclaimed, turning over his rumpled list and awkwardly heading the back of it Jules' Names. "Come on," He goaded, "What's the first one that comes to mind?"
She didn't tell him Princess of Thieves. No. No one outside the Guild knew about that name and she hadn't told Billy about the Guild. So she said the second name that came to mind. "Hellion," Jules announced, watching a mother pull her children to the other side of the street as the pair of mutants passed, feeling unusually hurt by the action she really should've been used to by then, "Cousin Lapin calls me dat all de time."
Scratching his head, Billy said, "Nope. Sorry. There's already a guy with that name. Julian... something."
Again, Jules just shrugged. The two teens walked a ways in silence before she finally made another try. "Bad Girl," She mused quietly.
Billy snorted. "Cute," He said, rolling his eyes but putting it on the list, "What else?"
"Diabolique," Jules offered, zoning out as she let the names pour from her lips, "Gehenna, Ker, Scratch, Iblis, Lilith, Lilin, Loki-"
"Hey, slow down!" Billy demanded, "I can only write so fast!"
With yet another shrug, the girl beneath his arm flatly stated, "It doesn't really matter... I don't think I want a codename anymore." The pair fell into an uncomfortable silence.
xxXxx
"Throw me higher, Daddy!" Zahra Howlett squealed, laughing at the top of her little lungs as her father tossed her up into the air. A rare smile graced Logan's rugged features as he watched his daughter's beautiful face light up. He had never figured himself for a family man, but Ruby, Zahra, and James came along and he could no longer imagine his life without them.
Panting and giggling as Logan caught her, little six-year-old Zahra slung her arms around his thick neck and snuggled her head of tousled dark hair beneath his stubbled chin. She gave a yawn and Logan realized that it was getting close to her bedtime.
"Come on, darlin," He stated softly, brushing a kiss on her flushed forehead, "Let's get you and your sister inside and into some pj's."
"Nooo!" Zahra whined tiredly, her protest punctuated by yet another yawn as her dark eyes began to droop, "I'm not sleepy!"
"Sure you're not," Logan argued with a gruff laugh, scanning the crowded lawn for signs of his eldest daughter. He found her easily, her head of white hair easy to pick out from the gaggle of young mutants engaged in the playful soccer game she'd joined. "Ruby," The man called, getting her attention, "Time to be headin' in, darlin."
"Aw," The girl pouted, giving him that look that could melt glaciers, "Five more minutes, Daddy! My team needs me!" Her kind face looked too much like Ororo's and Logan cracked in an instant. "Alright," He grudgingly agreed, "Five minutes. I'm timin' it." The girl beamed before running back to her game. Logan sat down in the grass, looking absolutely content to merely cuddle with the half-asleep Zahra.
Until Scott Summers showed up. Wolverine could smell his cheap ass cologne from a good twenty yards away, cutting off his approach with a gruff grunt of, "Whadaya want, one-eye?"
"Billy and Jules still haven't come back," The man stated, brown hair neat and red shades immaculate as he stiffly lowered himself into the grass beside Logan, "Professor wants you to go track them down."
"Lucky me," The Wolverine responded, carefully handing Zahra to Scott, "'Ro's busy so you just volunteered yourself for rugrat duty." The brunette opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by Logan's strict instructions of, "Pajamas are in the pink dresser and they get a story if they're good. I told Ruby she had to come in in five, but, since I won't be here, you can let her have ten."
Scott was muttering under his breath but did not argue.
Logan got to his feet and stalked towards the garage, already onto the scent.
xxXxx
"You want some dinner?" Jules asked, proudly displaying a worn black canvas wallet as she and Billy walked down the nearly deserted city streets in the dwindling twilight, "De Sno-Cone's buying."
Billy smirked. "You have got to teach me how to do that!" He declared, laughing before adding, "But we should probably get back. It's getting late and someone's gonna notice we're gone."
Frowning, definitely not looking forward to returning to the mansion, Jules nodded at the cinema they were passing, "Or we could catch a movie. De show should be letting out soon so we're just in time to catch de next one."
In the next second, the girl felt something inside her head suddenly splinter and shatter into a million pieces. It sounded like... a concrete pillar being struck with a wrecking ball. It felt like it, too.
And she was overcome by a horrible pain in her head. It was immense, intense, and immediately brought her to her knees. She had no idea what was going on but she felt like her skull was being squeezed, constricted from every angle and on the verge of a complete collapse, shards bowing inwards and shredding her brain. She barely kept herself from screaming out loud.
"Hey!" Billy cried, kneeling beside his friend and laying a comforting hand on her back, "What's the matter? Are you ok?"
Unable to even breathe through the pain, Jules could barely keep herself from collapsing entirely. When she tried to speak, nothing but sobs would leave her throat.
The doors of the movie theater opened and a large crowd came pouring out. Juliette could suddenly feel them all inside her head, flashes of terror leftover from the horror movie they had just seen, twinges of concern from some as they passed her, wave after crippling wave of hatred when they saw she was a mutant. The few minutes it took for the crowd to thin out and disperse were agony for Jules and she couldn't stop the tears from coming as she prayed for it to stop.
Slowly, she faded back into awareness, dizzily looking up into Billy's completely freaked out face as he asked, "What happened?"
"I-I don't know," Jules answered, still finding her voice, limply allowing Billy to help her back onto her feet. Her whole world felt so... different... so much more... intrusive and harsh. She was disturbed to find herself not only aware of Billy's deep concern, his worry and fear, but actually feeling it like it was her own... it was not a pleasant sensation.
"I gotta get outta here," Jules declared, unsteady as she shoved Billy away and took off down the street.
"Wait!" He called, chasing the girl until she ducked into a dark alley and seemed to disappear into the shadows. He stood still, fearful and uneasy as he cried out, "Jules! Come on! Please, come back!"
xxXxx
It was horrible.
Passing a person meant instantly having all their emotions forced like a flood inside of her head.
Groups were worse, so many feelings at once, overwhelming and disorienting, confusing and painful as they blended into a solid wave of... a barrage of... a scream. A shrill scream from inside her head and she couldn't quiet it no matter how hard she tried, no matter how tightly she pressed her hands over her ears or how loud she screamed back in an attempt to drown it out.
Simon took Jules to a rock concert once; afterwards, she thought the ringing in her ears would drive her crazy. As the girl ran through the small town in search of haven from the deafening screech of foreign emotions, she wished for the ringing. The ringing would have been a substantial improvement to her current condition.
When her lungs and muscles and mind could no longer take the strain being put on them, Jules found herself collapsing into a boneless heap in the middle of the back alley of a supermarket. Her whole body throbbed and her brain felt like a soupy mush that would surely leak out of her ears and onto the cold, filthy asphalt beneath her cheek.
But it was relatively quiet back there. She found a few moments to relax and make an attempt at rational thought.
Before that could happen though, the painful grip of whatever the hell was wrong with her came back. The sensations were a little softer this time, tentative and lurking at the base of her skull like they were trying to go unnoticed, insistent whispers instead of screams. They were almost soothing, but still... unnatural... unwelcome... frightening...
"Who's dere?" Jules called, her voice shaking as she slowly got her vision to come into focus. She saw well in the dark, always had, but the alley was still empty to her eyes. But she knew someone was there... "I know you're dere!" She shrieked, already defensive as she pushed herself up to her knees, "Come on out right now or else-" Against her own better judgment, the girl conjured herself a small handful of crackling crimson and black flames, "-I'll flambé ya when I find ya!"
After a brief moment of silence, the whisper sensations became a little louder and were followed by the muffled sounds of a pair of graceful bodies jumping to the ground. "I'm impressed, petite," A deep male voice claimed, tinged with a hint of disbelief, "How de hell did you know we were dere?"
"M-Marquis?" Jules asked, concentrating hard to separate the handful of flames from her body and throwing them away to explode with a small and harmless pop. The girl was proud of her newfound control, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. Anything bigger than a small handful quickly overwhelmed her and that was not acceptable. She refused to go home, to return to her family until she could control it completely.
The girl was slightly surprised to look up and find her suspicion had been confirmed, to see the muscular twenty-three-year-old thief walking towards her out of the dark. At his side, a slim young woman of twenty-two was also approaching, wearing an expression of annoyance that Jules could feel as if someone was taking a morning star to the inside of her head...
"Morning Star..." The girl echoed, latching onto the phrase even as she tried not to.
"Jacinthe?" She questioned, still dizzy and confused, "What you doin' here?" You two are supposed to be... not here..."
"I know," The woman grumbled, pushing long dyed-black hair off her graceful shoulders, "We got called to keep an eye on you, your highness."
"You didn't really thing your père was gonna leave you here all alone, did ya?" Marquis Marseilles joked, trying hard not to be disturbed as he knelt down at the girl's side and she cringed visibly.
"No," She answered weakly, fighting hard against the flood of concerned emotions she had now pinpointed as coming from Marquis, "But I didn't expect spies. Two, even. And all for lil' ole me."
"Your family's worried," Marquis claimed, just sitting back and watching as Juliette forced herself up from her hands and knees to shakily stand on her feet, "And apparently with good reason. What's goin on?"
Squeezing her eyes shut tight, Juliette swayed precariously and whimpered, "I dunno... my head hurts..."
She could feel a stinging slap inside her mind when Jacinthe Didier rolled her eyes behind the girl's back. "SHUT UP, JACINTHE!!" Jules ordered, nearly collapsing again when she felt the woman's surprise and anger.
Marquis caught the mutant before she could fall, severely disturbed when he felt her sob against him. Something definitely wasn't right. "Let's get you back to dat school 'a yours," He stated, instructing his reluctant partner, "You get de boy home. We don't need trouble over him."
"I ain't no babysitter!" Jacinthe cried indignantly, making Jules shudder violently in Marquis' arms, her knees giving out completely from the strength of the resentment and jealousy she could feel pouring off of the woman.
Scowling, making things worse for the girl he held, Marquis growled, "Just do it... she's in bad shape."
xxXxx
Jules had broken out into another fever by the time Logan found her.
Some sandy-haired punk was carrying the teen like she was a helpless baby as she whimpered and struggled to stay conscious.
Instantly incensed and defensive, Wolverine brought his jeep to an abrupt stop and leapt out of it with his claws already unsheathed. He approached from behind, silent and deadly.
Before he was even within fifty yards, Juliette turned her face against the young man's strong chest to muffle her scream of agony.
Before the brunette could even inquire what was wrong, he had a trio of sharp Adamantium blades against his throat.
"Drop her," Logan demanded gruffly, leaving very little room for argument.
Flinching in pain, the kid stated, "Can't, mon ami. De Princess's got her fingernails sunk in my shoulder." Indeed, the girl's sharp red talons had punched bloody little holes right through his thick black shirt... and she wasn't letting go despite looking like she'd been overwhelmed into unconsciousness.
Since Jules didn't seem to mistrust or fear the guy, and since he had a thick French accent much like her own, Logan relaxed his grip on the brunette's throat as he asked, "Who are you and what're you doing here?"
"Name's Marquis," He answered, clearly unhappy, "Remy LeBeau sent me to keep an eye on his daughter."
Wolverine released the young man, allowing him to step away and turn around. The kid was pretty clean-cut, tall and lean and muscular, but had sort of a cocky air about him that Logan instantly disliked. Scowling, Marquis gestured to the passed out girl as he claimed, "Monsieur LeBeau ain't gonna be happy when I tell him about dis. What de hell did you people do to her?"
"No idea," Logan responded, "Put her in my jeep and we'll get her back to school... where's Billy?"
"My partner went after him," Marquis reported flatly, "She'll take care of it."
Nodding, Logan turned and led the boy to his vehicle, very mindful of Juliette's whimpers of anguish.
xxXxx
The ride back passed mostly without conversation, only fretful sobs from Jules in the backseat to punctuate the tense silence.
She began to stir when they entered the school grounds, began to wake when they drove into the underground garage, and began to scream when Marquis tried to carry her inside.
"Shhh, petite," He soothed, nearly getting his eyes scratched out as she fought him blindly, "It's alright. We gonna help you."
"NO!" The girl shrieked, crying too hard to breathe properly, "NO! IT'S TOO LOUD! DERE'S TOO MANY OF DEM! MAKE IT STOP!"
"Huh?" Marquis grunted, mentally enraged by what the X-Men had done to the sweet, smart-mouthed little girl he had really grown to love competing with, even if she did kick his butt quite a lot. He was so mad that, after only a month, they'd managed to turn her into an incoherent wreck. They were going to pay.
The teen was just thinking up some suitable tortures when Jules suddenly gave a particularly loud scream and thrashed so hard that he nearly had to drop her. And then he did have to drop her because she'd gotten too hot to touch. Her skin felt like fire through the worn t-shirt on her thin, sweat-soaked body.
Marquis was bent over Jules to try to pick her up again, but she started in with this terrified, pained, utterly mindless whimpering, crawling away, sobbing desperately as she dragged herself into a corner and curled up into a tight little ball on the floor. The girl drew her knees up to her horned forehead, clamped her hands tight over her ears, and rocked and cried and gasped for air.
The garage was silent for a few moments while Jules tried to get a hold of herself. She failed and just started shrieking again, as loud as her already raw throat would allow, desperate to drown out the deafening rush of voices and emotions that should not be in her head.
It was too much.
too many.
too loud.
too hot.
Her hands were hot against her ears, buzzing and crackling and hurting but grounding her in reality with the pain and meaningless static. Her hands flared into twin balls of crimson and black flames and they made the voices just a little bit quieter.
Eager to keep the voices out, Jules didn't try to fight when the fire began to consume her, began to take over as it surrounded her body with heat and her mind with comforting, blissful silence. Finally able to take a breath, finally not feeling like her head was going to explode just from all the noise being forced inside it, Juliette leaned back against the wall and trembled inside the red hot cocoon of fire.
Drawn by the screaming, Jean arrived on the scene to find Logan and a strange young man worriedly standing a few yards back from a large crimson and black fireball that was surrounding Juliette's quivering, only half conscious body. "Oh my god," The redheaded telepath gasped, immediately throwing up a psychic shield around the girl in order to contain her inevitable explosion. "What happened?" She asked, worried over how the young teen was whimpering but otherwise uncharacteristically still against the floor, her smoldering eyes wide open pinpricks of shock.
"Dunno," Logan grunted, nodding his head at the strange young man, "Found her with him. She was out of it and screaming her head off... Chuck on his way?"
"Yes," Jean replied, checking on the Professor's progress towards the garage as she continued to hold the shield, "He says not to try to move or approach her until he arrives."
The strange young man let out a bitter chuckle, commenting, "Like I need to be told dat."
Nothing about the situation had really changed by the time Xavier showed, cautiously rolling up with a harried Ororo at his side. He already had a very strong suspicion as to what was wrong with the girl. Billy had run into his office only about twenty minutes before he began to sense the disaster in the mansion's garage. The boy let Xavier look at the events of that evening, Jules' sudden breakdown outside the theater. Seeing how quickly she had deteriorated seemed to give support to his theory despite the fact that he had been hoping to be wrong.
He tried to get into her head to take control of her powers and calm her down. It was impossible though. Her shields had completely collapsed but the inferno she'd wrapped herself in was giving off too much static from the kinetic energy contained in it. "Her shields collapsed," The Professor stated bluntly, "And... I believe she is an empath. I couldn't see it before. I don't think she even knew, but now the power is loose and she can't control or handle it..."
Turning to the sandy-haired young man standing beside Logan, Xavier said, "I cannot help her until the fire is out and I need to help her as soon as possible. Since you know her better than the rest of us, could you try to talk to her?"
"Uh..." Marquis responded, glancing over at the fireball with a slightly fearful edge, " I guess..." He approached warily, the heat coming off the crackling flames making him sweat as he got closer. Soon, he was kneeling down just a few feet away, calling out, "Jules? Princess? Can you hear me? It's Marquis."
"M-Marquis?" The girl responded, her voice dazed and alien as she trembled on the cold concrete floor, "Marquis, what you doin' here?"
"I'm here for you, Princess," He answered lightly, trying not to be disturbed by the fact that she didn't remember the conversation they had earlier, "I'm here to help... you doin alright?"
"No," The raven-haired teen sobbed, curling helplessly in on herself and sounding painfully childlike, "It's too loud. It hurts. Make it stop."
His heart was breaking as he quietly soothed, "I'm tryin, petite, but you gotta come outta dere first."
"Can't," Jules whimpered deliriously, "Too loud... Papa..."
Sighing, Marquis turned around and walked back to the group of mutants. "You heard de Princess," He stated coldly, whipping out his cellphone and hitting Remy's number on the speed dial, "She wants her papa."
xxXxx
Remy got the call at seven. He was in the hospital, sitting with Henri while his pale, exhausted older brother choked down some cafeteria food under Tante's orders. None of them were feeling too good.
Simon's vitals had been dropping steadily all day.
He picked up his cell after just one ring, eager for Marquis' report, slightly unnerved that the young thief was calling to give it ahead of schedule.
"Jules needs you," He heard immediately from the other end.
On his feet in an instant, Gambit demanded, "What happened?"
He was running out of the hospital only minutes later, rushing back to his father's mansion to meet Kurt, who was coming to take him to New York and his Juliette. Remy's mind was a mess; he could barely think straight and must have committed at least a dozen traffic violations as he drove. Three separate red light cameras flashed in his face but the thief truly did not care.
Kurt was waiting for him when he arrived, the fuzzy blue elf chatting quietly with Anatole in the doorway.
"Let's go!" Remy shouted, anxious to be with his baby girl because she needed him to be with her.
"Ja," Kurt replied, nodding goodbye to Ani as he grabbed Gambit's arm, "Wir gehen." (Yes. We go.)
A dizzying flurry of sulfurous bamfs later, Remy found himself in the Xavier garage; his daughter was curled up in the corner, trembling and immersed in a neat little bubble of fire.
"Juliette," Remy breathed out, utterly terrified as he rushed forward to get as close to her as he could manage with all the heat and flames. "Jules!" He called out, near panic over the way her eyes were wide open and staring right at him but not seeming to see, "Princess, it's Papa. Can you hear me?"
"P-Papa?" She whimpered, her voice so small it was painful to everyone in the garage, "Dere's so-something wrong with me. It hurts."
"I know, petite," Remy soothed, "Dat's why I'm here. I'm gonna make it all better but I need you to put out de fire first."
"No," The girl answered, curling tighter in on herself as the tears began, manifesting as hissing trails of steam coming from the corners of her eyes. "NO!!" She shrieked, even as everyone could tell the pulsing fire was in fact about to detonate.
Only seconds later, it did.
Jean's powers contained the blast, prevented much damage, though its sheer force still managed to shake the mansion. Before the smoke had cleared, an absolutely blood-curdling scream erupted from its source, from the small teen suddenly having to deal with the thoughts and feelings of an entire school being forced inside her head. She convulsed on the floor, clutching at her own skull, sinking her razor sharp fingernails into her own scalp just to try to make the foreign sensations stop coming. It was blinding, excruciating, probably would have killed her if the Professor hadn't immediately thrown up shields to protect her mind from shattering into a million tiny pieces.
As it was, the pain only lasted a split second. It seemed like far long to both the LeBeau's.
Jules passed out moments later, slightly scorched but eerily peaceful floating amidst the inner silence that had been restored to her, the black nothingness behind her closed eyes. A pool of blood settled beneath her head, crimson against the burnt concrete and fan of wild raven hair.
Used to the drill by that time, Remy didn't try to touch his daughter right away. He was beside her slight form when the smoky haze in the garage cleared up enough for the others to see, but he knew she'd still be too hot to lay hands on. His hands were shaking though, shaking at his sides as he had to continually remind himself off that fact. He was willing back tears and praying to God his baby would get through this.
xxXxx
"What did you do to her?" Remy's voice wavered menacingly as he pounded his fists down onto the top of Xavier's desk. He was absolutely incensed and no one could blame him. His daughter was unconscious in the medlab; she had thirty stitches in her scalp--three for each of the small gashes along the sides of her head where her fingernails pierced; two perfect half-moon rows of perfect half-moon punctures--and none of the X-Men were being very forthcoming about what had gone wrong. If he didn't get some answers soon, he was going to lose it.
The Professor sighed heavily, tenting his fingers against his thin lips as he thought about how best to break the news to Gambit. "Juliette is an empath," He finally stated quietly, "Like you, only, due to the mental shields you seem to have passed on to her when you resurrected her as an infant, she has never before had to deal with the power. Suddenly being confronted with an ability of this magnitude... it could easily kill her. Empaths already generally have a diffcult time living past their teen years. What they deal with can be overwhelming even in small doses, even after having more of their lives to gradually get used to feeling the emotions of others and learning how to filter them out. Juliette... due to a combination of things, one of which I'm ashamed to report was my own efforts to get past her shields, her shields have collapsed completely and she has no other way of protecting herself from what she feels."
Remy's hands were shaking again, his eyes looking more demonic than ever as he glared across the desk, as he tried to contain his overwhelming anger and terror. "How can I help her?" He asked, dangerously low.
"I'm not sure," Xavier answered plainly, "For the moment, I'm using my powers to shield her, but that is not a permanent solution. I can already feel her mind working against the intrusion of mine. It is not dissimilar to the way the body of a transplant patient might reject a donor organ. She just... doesn't trust me. Even on a subconscious level. I'll keep her protected as long as I can but she will eventually be left open again. She has maybe two days, at most, and... it would be best if she is in a more isolated area when my shields fail her."
Face hardening impossibly further, Remy hissed, "So dat's it den? You lure my daughter here with false hope, make her worse off, and den kick her to de curb without so much as a 'sorry for damaging your brain'?"
"You know that is not the situation at all," Xavier insisted, "The worst thing for her right now are the several hundred hormonal teenage minds waiting to invade hers... and I am sorry but there was no way we could have known and I was only trying to help-"
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR EXCUSES!!" The Cajun shouted, kicking a chair across the room, "DE ONLY DAMN THING DAT MATTERS IS MY DAUGHTER IS IN PAIN!!! NO MATTER WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO DO, DAT'S DE BOTTOM LINE!! I AM SO SICK OF YOU PEOPLE!! YOU THINK YOU CAN DO WHATEVER DE HELL YOU WANT AS LONG AS YOU CLAIM GOOD INTENTIONS!! MEANWHILE, YOU'VE ENDANGERED JULES' SANITY AND HER LIFE!!! DAT'S WHAT YOU AND YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS DO!! YOU DESTROY LIVES!!!"
The silence that came next was tense but neither man squirmed.
"I am sorry," The Professor finally muttered, "But none of that changes the fact that you must take Jules away from here."
"Oh, don't you worry," Remy spat venomously, "Soon as she's stable enough, I'm taking her home. And, so help me God, if you or any of your people come anywhere near her ever again-" He leaned across the desk, face only inches from Xavier's "-I'll kill ya." He leaned away, face stony, "It's dat simple."
xxXxx
Rogue felt the explosion and knew she had another chance. She wasn't too hopeful; Jules' stays in the medlab were usually quite closely watched but, still, the others had been getting less and less vigilant as the young girl ended up in there more and more. She knew it would only be a matter of time before she'd be able to slip in unnoticed.
She waited hours, waited for Hank to stitch the rows of small gashes beneath Jules' wild raven hair, for Remy to finally stomp off in an absolute rage, for Billy to be sent to bed, for Ororo to return to her family, for Marquis to step out to use the bathroom, for Jules to be alone. The untouchable walked cautiously into the room and stood directly beside the girl's bed.
Juliette LeBeau was very pretty, she had to admit, the girl's pale face peaceful in sleep. It made Rogue hate her even more.
She knew it was very petty to hate the girl; nothing was really her fault, after all. Still, Jules got Remy while all Rogue got was heartache and loneliness. It just didn't seem fair. Rogue absorbed Remy's own guilt along with his memories. She couldn't have... it wasn't her fault!!
But Remy still hated her. And why shouldn't he? She'd betrayed him. And it's not like he'd spent the last thirteen years missing her every second of every day. He had Juliette to fill that void and Rogue knew... Rogue knew there was no longer room for her in his life.
She just wanted a peek, that was all. Just a quick look at what Remy had done without her, to make sure Remy really was happy without her, to check if there might still be a chance...
No one told her about Jules' new power. Rogue wasn't expecting to absorb anything more than some memories when she lightly brushed her bare fingertips against the girl's pale face.
At first, she didn't absorb anything more than some memories. Rogue saw Jules wrestling with Remy on the beach, saw him tucking the girl into bed with a tender kiss on the forehead and a truly devoted smile he used to only... she saw Jules coming home from kindergarten and finding Remy collapsed on the floor gasping for air. She saw Jules running for an inhaler, her tiny body flashing through an eerie slideshow of growth that suggested it happened over and over and over throughout the years. She saw Remy coming back from business trips with presents, priceless little trinkets swiped right out of museums and palaces all across the world. She listened to Remy tell Jules again and again that he loved her, that she was his princess and the most beautiful girl that ever was or ever would be. Rogue remembered how Remy used to say those kinds of things to only her...
She gasped and took a step back, unaware of anything aside from the throbbing, nauseating pain radiating throughout her skull. It quickly turned from an ache to a searing, shrieking migraine, leaving the Southern Belle with little recourse but to stumble blindly out of the room before she got caught.
The pain worsened as she fought her way to her own room, until she collapsed onto her bed. Rogue spent the next twenty-four hours straight face-down in her pillow, screaming her throat raw.
xxXxx
At a little past midnight, Ororo gave up on getting to sleep. She wandered silently down to the medlab, hoping to check up on both Juliette and Remy.
She came across Remy just inside the medlab door. He was sitting on the ground, head in his hands and shoulders heaving as he fought for every next ragged breath.
"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, sinking down at his side.
The thief didn't even look up, but shook his head, pointing across the room to his old duster. It was draped over a chair near the end of his daughter's bed.
Quickly, Storm retrieved it for him, watching with tears in her eyes as his shaking hands tore through the pockets and eventually clutched around an inhaler. After a few puffs from it, Remy was breathing almost normally again but still wouldn't pick his head up. His silver-threaded auburn hair fell to veil his handsome face.
"Do you need me to call Hank?" Ororo questioned kindly, drawing a comforting hand down his trembling back.
Again, he shook his head, grounding out, "I'll be ok. Gimme a minute." After the promised minute, he let out a bitter little chuckle. "Jules'd usually be yelling at me right now," He reported sadly, "Telling me to calm down 'fore I hurt myself... she takes better care of me than I do of her."
"Do not be so hard on yourself," Storm admonished, "You love your daughter and she loves you. It is obvious to anyone with eyes to see."
"Loving her don't protect her," Remy answered, the harshness in his voice directed more at himself than the weather witch at his side, "I should have... I should have been here. I should have fought harder when she wanted me to leave. I should have kept dis from happening to her. What de hell good am I if I can't protect her?"
Putting an arm around his shoulders, Storm quietly comforted, "You do your best, Remy, but you cannot protect her from everything. The world will happen to your baby no matter how much you try to shield her from it. At this point, you can no longer be her shield, but rather her anchor. She will need your love and support. She will need you standing behind her rather than in front of her as she learns to survive in a world that has been fundamentally and irreversibly changed."
Sighing heavily, hating that the woman was right, Remy leaned his head down on Storm's shoulder and grumbled, "You're pro'ly right, Stormy, but... it's hard. I can barely stand it when she skins her knees and then I can at least kiss her and make her feel better. I... I can't stand not being able to do a thing to help her."
"But you do," Storm answered quietly, "You help her just by being there. You make her feel safe, even subconsciously. It was only your presence that finally made her feel secure enough to let go of her powers this afternoon. Even though she fought against doing so, some part of her just knew you would take care of her. She loves and trusts you above anyone else."
For a long few moments, the pair sat in silence. Eventually, Remy stated, "Thanks."
"For what, my brother?" Storm inquired, tenderly stroking his hair as if he was a small boy rather than a grown man of nearly forty.
"For telling me what I needed to hear," Remy responded tiredly, dark eyes falling shut as his exhaustion began to claim him, "For always being dere for me, even after everything."
The Cajun fell asleep then, never noticing the guilty, far-off expression in Storm's eyes.
xxXxx
Nearly two days later, Juliette woke slowly as the buzzing in her ears got louder and louder, like someone had tuned a radio to static and was gradually turning up the volume. She groaned, curling onto her side and pressing her hands tightly over her ears in an attempt to block out the sound. It took only seconds to realize that the effort was futile.
"Petite?" She heard her papa's voice ask softly, sounding like it was coming from far away even as his calloused hands brushed hair back from her horned forehead, "You awake, ma belle fille?" (my beautiful girl)
"Head hurts," She whimpered, keeping her eyes squeezed tightly shut because she just couldn't handle any more sensation.
"I know, Princess," Remy sighed regretfully, laying down beside her in the small, unfamiliar bed and cradling her against his broad chest. "I'm sorry," He said, using one thumb to rub gentle, soothing circles against the whimpering girl's pale temple, "Xavier can't keep you protected much longer but we're moving you today so you should feel better soon. Remember de old house your grand-père owns in de middle of de swamp? De one dat used to run a leg of de Underground Railroad?"
"Ya," Jules sobbed weakly, throat tightening as she fought back tears of pain and frustration, "Why are we going dere? What's wrong with me, Papa? What's going on?"
"We talked about dis," The auburn-haired man soothed, voice a strained rumble against his daughter's cheek, "You got an empathy power, miel, and we need to get you away from people while you learn to control it." (honey)
"But..." The teen gaped, confused and close to frantic as the buzzing began to get louder, as her whole body began to prickle with waves of foreign emotions, "But I don't... how come..." The whole situation was too confusing, and it was getting harder and harder to sort her own thoughts out of her overstuffed, throbbing mind. Discouraged and frightened, Jules broke down into incoherent gasps for breath.
"Slow it down, mon amour," Remy instructed, trying like hell to keep himself calm, "Just concentrate on me. Block out de rest of it and concentrate on me." His own experience in dealing with an empathic power told him that any positive, calming emotions he could feed to his daughter would help her keep grounded. He tightened his arms around her thin, shaking body, placing a kiss on her cheek as he began to hum an old lullaby he'd always sang to her as a baby.
Slowly, very slowly, she began to relax, tense muscles going limp as her hysterical tears tapered to confused, disoriented hiccups. She still had no idea what was happening to her, couldn't hold onto the explanation amidst the rest of the chaos in her mind no matter how many times it was told to her.
But her papa was there.
She didn't have to be scared because her papa was there.
xxXxx
At that same moment, on the third floor of Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, next to the third bed in the intensive care unit, the machine monitoring the heartbeat of LeBeau, Simon R., abandoned its slow, rhythmic beeping in favor of one long, flat whine.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ah. Dramatic, no? As always, reviews are encouraged and rewarded with happy thoughts directed in the reviewer's direction. Extra points to those who know the meanings behind all of Jules' and Billy's proposed codenames. :)