Renovations
"How much did you pay for this dump." Bobby asked as he walked around the crumbling rooms. He had volunteered to take Jubilee to the house to meet with the architect she had hired for the restoration. He was appalled at the condition of the house. Several more ceilings had fallen leaving a heavy coat of plaster dust throughout the rooms. The architect, an older man named Peter Wellesley, had insisted on hard hats and dust masks for everyone while they were in the house.
"Plaster dust and asbestos aren't healthy for the lungs," he had told them.
Jubilee had happily complied with Peter's wishes. She knew she was lucky to get him. He was a genius when it came to restoration architecture and as soon as she and Logan met him, they knew why. He was a mutant with the ability to see any two dimensional drawing in three dimensions. It was not a powerful mutant gift but it gave him an edge in his chosen profession.
"$350,000 for the house and land." Jubilee told Bobby.
Bobby's eyebrows rose in surprise. "How much land?" he asked.
"Eight acres." she told him with a grin.
Bobby whistled appreciably. "Damn! The land's worth more than that. How'd you get this so cheap?"
"The house is on the National Registry for Historic Homes." she explained. "You can't tear it down. I was the only one in the last six years who has the money to restore it."
"We've budgeted $2.5 million to restore the house and gardens." Peter told him. "When I'm done with it, the property should be worth somewhere near eight million."
"How much time are we talking about?" Bobby asked. "A year?"
"More like two." Jubilee told him.
"A project this big and this complicated takes time." Peter explained. "Much of what was destroyed will have to be replicated by hand. There are not many craftsmen left in the world who know how to make these things and those who do are very busy. We will have to wait our turn with them. But first Miss Lee, we will need to hire a general contractor."
"I don't really know anyone here." she admitted. "Do you have anyone you can recommend?"
"Actually, I know of three that could handle the job."
"Which one would you use on your own home?"
"That's easy." he said "Katrina Johanssen."
"Why her?" Bobby asked.
"First and foremost, she's mutant friendly." Peter told them. "More importantly, she has an extensive background in restoration and a degree in fine arts. She knows how to do it and she'll do it right the first time."
"Will she work with my interior designer?" Jubilee asked.
"I don't see why not." he said with a shrug.
Six weeks later, she signed off on the blueprints. Peter gave her four copies, two of which, she passed on to the X-Men. Logan, Bishop, Remy and Scott poured over the drawings, planning a sophisticated security system for the house. Their lively argument drew spectators from all over the mansion.
"I'm tellin' ya, the camera needs ta be here." Logan insisted as his finger tapped a corner of the paper.
"But that will leave a blind spot here." Bishop pointed out, jambing his finger on another spot of the paper.
"Put another camera in if ya hafta but ya can't put one there." Logan told him.
"Why not?" Bishop demanded.
"There's an old hickory tree right here." Logan told him, tapping the paper. "It'll block everythin' but the right side of the picture."
"Then we'll cut the tree down." Scott said.
"Jubes'll kill ya if ya cut that tree down." Logan warned. "She wants ta put an outdoor kitchen in the shade there."
"No." Scott sounded miffed. "No outdoor kitchen."
Logan snorted. "Ya get ta tell 'er that yerself." he said with a grin. "Just make sure I ain't here when ya do. I'm still tryin' ta get 'er ta take me back."
Jubilee quickly nixed the death of the tree. The property had several very old and very large trees on it. The ancient hickory was in a perfect position to shade the west side of the house from the evening glare and she had plans for that tree. Scott learned early in the restoration that Jubilee had very strong ideas and she did not care how HE felt about it. SHE was going to have her way.
Logan knew his Jubes. He was not about to say 'no' to her unless he had a very good reason. So far, he had only had to put his foot down once. He had Peter leave room for a 'panic room' in the overall design of the house. He wanted to make sure she had a safe place to go and an undetectable way out of the house should the need arise. Jubilee had accused him of paranoia but all he needed to do was describe a scenario where Mari was an overnight guest when the house was attacked and she gave in and let him have his way.
Scott and Bishop gave their enthusiastic approval to the 'panic room' idea and made plans to have it double as a control room for the security systems. Jubilee had no idea exactly how much security they were planning to install and Logan was grateful for that. He was sure she would not like the lasers they were going to place at all the entries and at strategic spots on the grounds. If they could just keep her ignorant until everything was in place, there would be nothing she could do about it.
The arrival of Steven Peltier, Jubilee's interior designer friend, was enough for Logan to retreat to the Danger Room with a growl of jealousy. The man was tall, buff and handsome. Remy had insisted that he recognized the man from an advertisement for underwear. Steven admitted that he modeled in his youth and some of the photographs were still in use.
Steven greeted Jubilee with a kiss that had Logan growling loudly. She was obviously very fond of the man because if looked like she was returning the kiss.
"You don't have the right, Logan." Scott reminded him.
"Yet." Logan said, looking daggers into Steven's back.
Katrina Johannsen was everything Peter said she was. Jubilee was greatly impressed with her credentials and references but she had problems with how she interacted with the male residents of the mansion, most particularly, Logan.
Katrina, or Kat, as she preferred to be called, was a tall, leggy blond with a figure would not be out of place among the busty women who lived at the mansion. She took one look at Logan's sweaty, rippling muscles and decided he was to be her entertainment while she worked on Jubilee's house. To say Jubilee was jealous was putting it mildly. If she could have found anyone else to do the job, she would have fired the bimbo as soon as she propositioned him.
The situation was not any fun for Logan, either. He had been celibate since before Jubilee's return to the mansion. He wanted Jubilee to see that he was committed and faithful to her but Kat made it very difficult. She had a habit of cornering him and running her hands over his body while she purred in his ear, telling him what she wanted to do to him, in very graphic detail. What was worse was that Jubilee's scent permeated the house, even over the smells of sawdust and oil. He could not get away from it. If Kat's hands and whispered words were not keeping him in a constant state of arousal, the scent of warm Jubilee was.
Jubilee was aware of what Kat was doing but she felt that she had no right to stop her. She walked out on Logan thirteen years previously and gave up the right to interfere with his sex life. That knowledge did not keep her from gritting her teeth whenever she saw Kat move towards him. Her only consolation was that he did not appear to welcome her advances.
Ororo was not so shy. She still considered Logan hers, even though she had not been in his bed, nor he in hers, for several months. The beautiful weather goddess confronted Kat one morning three months into the job and threatened to rip her blond hair out if she did not leave Logan alone. Kat, in return, knew Storm was a powerful mutant and told Jubilee she would quit if she was ever threatened again. Jubilee was ready to let her leave until the contractor she was negotiating with heard of the threats and backed out. Try as she might, she could not find another contractor who had the experience and was willing to do the job. She was forced to ask Ororo to back off and leave Kat alone.
Ororo was furious. She would prefer keep Logan's affections but if she had to lose him, she would rather lose him to Jubilee than to Kat. She knew Jubilee cared for him and would treat him well. Kat, however, lusted for him. When her lust was spent, she would leave him and never come back. She felt that Logan deserved to be coddled and cared for and if it could not be her, it better be Jubilee.
"What am I gonna do?" Logan asked Gambit one evening during a Danger Room training session he was sorely in need of. Kat had been extra attentive that day and Logan's nerves were on edge. He had started the session alone, tearing up as many targets as he could in as short a time possible. Remy had joined him after an argument with Rogue. "She's drivin' me nuts." Logan complained.
"Which one?" Remy asked during a break. "Kat or de p'tite?"
"Kinda both." Logan admitted. "If Kat ain't touchin' me, Jubes is around with her scent an' her voice. A man can only take so much, Gumbo."
"Well," Remy drawled, "ya can' screw Kat. De p'tite find out real quick if ya do."
"Kat ain't the one I want anyway." Logan protested. "I want Jubes."
"She ain't ready yet?"
"Nah. She still don't believe me when I tell her I'm over Jean. Then there's Peltier. He hangs on her like she's his. Dammit! She ain't his. She's mine!"
"Firs' ya gotta ease de pressure." Remy told him, alarmed at the passion in the older man's voice. "Gambit can help ya dere. You go see Cheryl Posset. She take care of ya." Cheryl was a very talented prostitute Remy had known for many years. Before Rogue mastered control of her powers, Cheryl was the only thing that kept Remy sane.
"I don't want a whore, Gumbo." Logan snarled. "I want Jubes."
"Ya go ta her like dis, ya gonna have no control an' ya might hurt her." Remy warned. "Better ya ease de pressure firs'."
"I'd be okay if Kat would quit kissin' on me." Logan growled. "I can deal with havin' Jubes scent all over but Kat pettin' me is too much."
"Tell her ta stop."
"I tried that. She just laughs and keeps goin'."
"Why does de p'tite keep her around when she do dis?" Remy asked as they left the Danger Room.
"Jubes tried ta replace her when 'Ro went off on her but no one else'll take the job." Logan told him. "That an' she does real good work."
Remy pushed open the door to the men's locker room, stripping his armor off as he went. Behind him, Logan was pulling off his uniform and grabbing towels for both of them. Remy could not help but notice, when Logan removed his pants, that he was fully erect.
"Remy'd offer ta help you wit' dat but Roguey made him promise he wouldn't do dat no more." Remy said, eying Logan's body.
"Jubes is in the mansion." Logan told him with a scowl. "I can smell her. 'Sides, I never took ya up of the offer before. What makes ya think I'd risk gettin' the crap beat outta me by Rogue and Jubes fer a quick lay?"
Remy's eyebrows rose. "Jus' smellin' da p'tite do dis to ya?"
"Yeah." Logan sighed. "It's worse if I can see her, too."
"I t'ink yer gonna hafta leave." Remy told him.
"Can't do that, either. I promised Jubes I'd stay here and protect Mari."
"You screwed, homme." Remy told him, shaking his head.
"I wish." Logan muttered.
Despite the sexual pressure he felt, Logan could not bring himself to put distance between Jubilee and himself. As painful as it was to be near her, being away from her was worse. He found that out the first time she went on a mission without him.
Official X-Men policy says that parents cannot be on the same team. If something happened, the child would lose both parents at the same time. Logan had forgotten that policy when Jubilee returned to the mansion, mostly because he never thought it would ever apply to him. After her third mission, his nerves had frayed to the breaking point. He had to do something to get his mind off what she was doing so he started to train Mari for combat.
She was overjoyed. Jubilee had expressly forbidden her to learn combat moves. It gave her a thrill to be able to do something her mother would not like. And to have her father doing it, well, that was the icing on the cake. Her joy quickly turned to dismay when she learned what Jubilee already knew; Wolverine is a martinet in the Danger Room.
Between missions, Jubilee worked on her house. She found that she loved working on stripping and restoring the delicate mouldings that ran throughout the house. It was not unusual for her to stagger back to the mansion well after midnight having lost track of the time while she worked. Logan finally started going by the house at dinnertime and dragging her out to eat. During one of these forced dinners, the passage of time reared its ugly head.
Logan had taken her to Harry's Hideaway for a dinner of ribs with all the trimmings. Jubilee had always liked Harry's. The food was good and the pool tables were always level. Even the fights that broke out there were fun. Harry had welcomed her back with a hug and a kiss that had Logan growling under his breath.
Logan had gotten them seats at the bar so she could talk to Harry as he worked. She was just finishing her dinner when a young, nubile girl of about eighteen approached Logan and asked him to dance. Jubilee loved to dance with him. He had an excellent sense of rhythm and could make a woman feel like she was dancing on air.
"I'm with someone." he told the girl.
"Her?" the kid scoffed. "She needs to go back to her brood of kids and let the younger generation have some fun."
Jubilee's breath caught in her throat at the girl's words. All her life, she had been thought of as a kid. Even now, some of the X-Men still did not treat her as an adult and here was a girl, over a decade younger than her, telling her she was too old.
Logan, to his credit, sent the girl away with several rude comments about jail bait.
"Don't listen ta her, darlin'." he said in her ear. "Ya ain't old."
"Aren't I?" she asked, staring into her drink. "To her, I am. I'm thirty-one, Wolvie. My life is nearly half over."
"Jubilee," he said in a low tone, "look at me."
She turned and was immediately lost in his eyes.
"I've known ya since ya were thirteen." he said softly. "I've watched ya grow from a gangly kid who was all elbows and knees ta a beautiful woman. No, yer not a girl anymore but why would ya want ta be? When ya were a girl, the only thing ya knew about yerself was that ya were a mutant and wanted ta be with me. The woman ya are knows who she is and what she can do. The girl was wonderful. The woman is awesome. I wouldn't want ya ta be any younger than ya are right now."
She searched his face, her eyes brimming with tears, trying to find the lie. It was not there. A small sob escaped her lips as she threw arms around him.
"I love ya, Jubes." he whispered.
"More than Jean?" she sobbed. "I don't think so."
"Oh, Jubes." he sighed. "Why can't ya believe me?"
"I can't, Wolvie." She pulled back and wiped her eyes. "I can't afford to. I can't let myself get hurt like that ever again."
He cupped her chin in his hand and gently pulled her toward him, lowering his mouth to hers, kissing her, showing her how much he loved her. After an initial start of surprise, she kissed him back. He had to break the kiss before it became too much. He moved his mouth to her ear, licking it lightly.
"I'm gonna find a way ta make ya believe me." he growled, holding her trembling form in his arms.