It Ends Tonight
"You look happy," Kitty commented as she quickly took a seat next to the grinning Rogue.
"Yep!" Marie replied happily, her lips parting in a happy smile as she briefly acknowledges Kitty's presence.
Kitty was wearing a long, purple, skintight top, and dark blue jeans. Her hair was down and neatly parted to the side, although her longish bangs, as always, hid half of the girl's sensitive and gentle features.
"You and Jean made up, I presume," Kitty stated more than asked, her eyes glooming slightly at the unfavorable truth of Marie's love for Jean Grey. Marie looked up at Kitty, her smile causing the butterflies in Kitty's stomach to react.
"Yes—but how did you know? I haven't told a soul yet?" Marie asked curiously, watching as Kitty stared back at her with an unreadable expression.
"How could I not know…it's as clear as rain," Kitty finally muttered, adding much confusion to Marie, who tried desperately to interpret Kitty's hollowed eyes. Marie was about to add a question to her current confusion, when Logan entered the room.
"Hey, kids!" Logan greeted as he made his way towards the fridge to get himself a drink.
"Hey, fogy," Marie replied back, earning her a smile from Kitty and a disapproving grunt from Logan.
"Well, I see that you've got your humor back…" Logan began, turning to face Marie and Kitty, "you and Jean made up, I presume," Logan finished with a hopeful smile, which widened when the happy expression on Marie's face clarified his assumption. "Great! I knew she would come around!" Logan responded happily, beaming as he made his way to stand by Marie and a gloomy Kitty. "Just great, Marie, I'm so happy for you!"
"Thanks, Logan!" Marie replied happily, smiling as Logan took a seat next to her, as Kitty kept her gloomy eyes on Marie.
"So, come on, don't be shy! Give us details—what did you say? What did she say?" Logan asked curiously, wanting to know every last detail about Jean and Marie's reconciliation.
Marie could only laugh at first, as she moved towards the pizza box in the middle of the counter. She picked up a slice and took a bite, before deciding to answer Logan's question.
"You really want to know?"
"Of course!"
"Every little detail?"
"Hurry up and tell me before I beat it out of ya!" Logan responded in his typical playful manner.
"Ok, ok!" Marie laughed, as Kitty looked as if she were about to be sick.
Marie was about to open her mouth and give Kitty and Logan the details on her conversation with Jean, when out of nowhere Kitty jumped off her stool and moved towards the door leading out to the hallway.
"Be back in a minute. I uh, I…forgot to do something very important! Be back soon—bye!" Kitty explained quickly, not giving Marie or Logan the chance to question why she would leave before Marie's epic recount.
"Forget about her—get started on the details! I am expecting a very vivid recount of your makeup sex with Jean—"
"In your dreams!" Marie replied quickly, laughing at the funny expression on Logan's face.
Meanwhile...
While Marie was sitting in the kitchen with Logan, enjoying the moment of clarity and relief after speaking to Jean, Jean was still in her room, smiling to herself as she sat at her computer reading a few emails. Her attention was only diverted when she heard an all too familiar voice from behind her.
"Hello, Jean…" the voice called out. The voice was emotionless, low, and gave a sour hint of jealousy that instantly made Jean cringe. "You've been hiding something from me for far too long…" the voice continued, turning the air in the room into a toxic aroma.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Scott," Jean replied evasively. Despite how distorted and raw Scott's voice became—she knew it was him.
He stepped into the room, his heavy footsteps moving closer and closer towards Jean.
"So, planning on making a fool out of me, huh?" Scott began, stopping just short of where Jean sat.
"Scott, just because you had a bad day it doesn't mean that you have the right to take it out on me—"
"Quit the bullshit, Jean, I know about you and Rogue—and needless to say…I can't wait to let the shit hit the fan—" Scott began with a sneer, his face inches away from Jean's.
"I don't know what you are talking about—"
"You can deny it all you want, Jean—I saw you and Rogue talking earlier, and man did I ever feel like a fool!" Scott exclaimed dramatically, watching the look of dread on Jean's face. "And from what I overheard, that's exactly what you and your little preschool fuck plan to do! Well, I got news for you, Jean, and it ain't pretty…" Scott continued, pausing to catch his breath and to calm his rage long enough to let Jean hear all that he had to say. "…I'm going to turn the tables on you," he announced, shaking his head in agreement with himself before continuing. "I'm going to tell the Professor, the cops, everyone—"
"No, Scott! Don't!" Jean pleaded, forcing herself onto Scott—tears streaming down her face as terror flushed out all the color in the doctor's face.
She clasped onto Scott's clothes, crying as she clawed at him, all sense of composure thrown out the window as the possibility of the consequences of her relationship with Marie came into full focus.
"Don't?" Scott began, his head titled slightly to the right as he pretended to not know what Jean was talking about—taunting her cruelly, and enjoying it greedily. "Don't what, Jean?" Scott continued with an evil grin, enjoying the advantage he had over Jean—wanting nothing more than to prolong the moment for his own twisted pleasure.
"Don't…tell anyone—please!" Jean begged, choking on each word as she looked up at Scott from her kneeling position on the floor. Scott just shook his head, his grin lopsided as he stared back down at Jean with a careless and demeaning expression.
"Why should I? What's in it for me?" Scott asked his mind racing with the possibilities of what he could get Jean to do for him in return for his silence.
Jean struggled to focus on Scott's face as the tears in her eyes blurred her sight. She struggle to swallow as she fought for the strength to utter the words that she knew Scott wanted to hear from her. She knew what Scott wanted from her, and knew the consequences of doing what Scott would command her to do would mean breaking her heart as well Marie's. But she was trapped; she had no other option. She struggled to open her mouth and utter her reply. She didn't want to say it—it must have been her heart that made her choke on her attempt to offer Scott what she knew he wanted. She forced herself to say it anyways—no matter how barely audible it was—it didn't mater, she knew he would hear her.
"I'll…do anything…you…want…" Jean managed to say, her voice crackling and buckling at the attempt to say it—but it didn't matter. Scott heard her.
There was a long pause, and at first, Jean thought that Scott hadn't heard her. She was about to repeat what she had just said when Scott's voice finally broke the silence.
"Anything..?" Scott questioned, his gaze firmly planted on Jean's teary eyes, desperately waiting for Jean to reply.
"Yes," Jean whispered regrettably, thoughts of Marie lingering in her mind as she tried her hardest to stop her tears. "Anything…" Jean finished, her gaze dropping to the floor as Scott released his hold on her face.
She stared at the floor for a moment, not even blinking, when she heard the stomach-turning sound of a zipper being unzipped. She only stared at the floor, numb and cold, as she waited for Scott's instructions.
Meanwhile...
After fifteen minutes, when Kitty figured that Marie's epic retelling of her rekindled relationship with Jean was over, the mutant strolled back into the room and sat back on her stool. Acting like nothing was wrong, she avoided Logan's questioning eyes as she reached inside the pizza box for a slice, meeting Logan's gaze for a moment before looking the other way. Logan sighed heavily, suspicious of Kitty's odd behavior, but knew better than to question the girl in front of the person who seemed to be the source of Kitty's unusual behavior.
"Thinking about her?" Logan asked with a smile, attempting to clear the silence.
"Yeah," Marie replied with a smile of her own, her eyes watching her fingers make invisible patterns on the counter top. "I'm just so relieved that everything's so clear now. Everything will be as it should be," Marie continued with her thought, her smile making Kitty's heart beat faster as the young mutant studied every move Marie made.
Logan shook his head approvingly as he eyed the contents of his beer. "I'm glad that you and Jean have your relationship back on track," he began as he moved towards the fridge. "So, I think that it's only right that we celebrate—the right way!" Logan continued brightly after opening the fridge to retrieve a beer. He turned around and placed the beer in front of Marie, smiling proudly before returning to the fridge in search of another beer to replace his empty one.
Seeing that the bottle was a twist cap, Marie twisted off the cap and was about to take a swig from her bottle when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Kitty staring back at her with anticipation.
"Here, Kitty, take this one," Marie instructed with a friendly smile, giving the beer to Kitty, who took it thankfully.
"I didn't know you liked beer," Kitty responded with a flirty tone, before putting the bottle to her lips to take the first swig.
"I don't," Marie replied in a whisper, mindful to not upset Logan for his attempt at doing something thoughtful for her. "I don't even like getting drunk!" Marie continued with a smirk. "But I don't mind it once in a while—especially when it's Logan who is supplying," she finished with a giggle, joined eagerly by Kitty, who enjoyed the moment with Marie.
"Where the hell is that other beer? I know I brought down four! Where the hell are the other two?!" Logan exclaimed with confusion, scratching his head as the girls watched him.
"Well, you did put them in a fridge that is most commonly used by other students…so…I'm guessing that the other two were taken by one of the other students—or something…" Kitty offered with a shrug, watching as Logan turned away from the fridge to face the girls.
"Yeah, that would make sense—since I did in fact leave the beers in here to cool down a couple of hours ago—"
"Then one of the other students definitely saw it and took it, sorry, Logan," Kitty interrupted, smiling humorously at Logan's expression.
"The Professor is going to kill me!" Logan exclaimed, pausing as if to reflect on the truth behind his own words. "Oh well!" he concluded shortly after, as he marched back out into the hallway.
"Where are you going?" Marie called out.
"What does it look like, to get more beer?!" Logan replied as he quickly walked back in the direction of his room.
Unable to contain themselves, the girls exploded into giggles as they sat alone in one of the many kitchens in the mansion.
"He's such a character!" Kitty commented before taking another sip from her beer.
"That's Logan for ya!" Marie replied with a knowing smile, as she silently hoped that the Professor, if he ever found out, would take it easy on her friend, and not do as he always threatened to do if he ever caught Logan drinking or making alcohol accessible to other students. "I hope the Professor won't turn Logan's mind into the mind of a six year old girl…" Marie said out loud, biting her lip to keep herself from laughing at the idea of what Logan would be like if that were to ever happen.
"Don't worry, Rogue. I'm almost positive that Logan would look soooo cute with pink ribbons in his hair," Kitty said with a wide smile as she watched Marie burst out into laughter.
"OH MY GOD HE WOULD LOOK SOOO CUTE!" Marie practically screamed as her laughter echoed throughout the room, followed by Kitty's cute laughter to add to the hilarity of the moment.
"What's going on in here? What's so funny?" Logan asked as he entered the room with a case of beer in his hands.
At the sight of Logan, the two girls laughed even harder as they couldn't help but imagine exactly what Logan would look like with pink ribbons in his oddly sculpted hair. And as Logan watched the two girls continue to laugh hysterically, he shook his head from side to side disapprovingly before placing the case in the fridge. Before closing the fridge door, he grabbed the two beers he was originally looking for and gave one to the now giggling Marie, and keeping the other for himself. He drank from his beer cautiously, eyeing the girls as they struggled to calm themselves. Thankfully, after a few minutes of trying, the girls eventually calmed themselves.
"Something tells me that I don't want to know what you two girlies where laughing about…so I'm just going to continue on with my evening plans…which includes getting drunk and watching UFC—who's with me?" Logan asked as he moved off his stool to move towards the couch on the opposite side of the room.
And after a few moments, the girls followed Logan to the couch and sat and watched some UFC with him.
A few beers later, Marie was fairly drunk, and found herself unable to remove Jean from her mind. She let her eyes roam over to a sleeping Kitty before looking over at Logan, who seemed entranced in the current fight. Seeing that both Kitty and Logan were far too busy to be paying attention to her, she got up from her seated position and quickly, though awkwardly, left the room.
I know that Jean doesn't like it when I visit her out of the blue…but I'm sure that I can make her understand that all I want tonight is a goodnight kiss and a chance to say 'I love you" to her again. She loves it when I say that—and God has it ever been so long since the last time I said that to her, Marie thought to herself, still possessing the ability to formulate thoughts under her current state. She smiled to herself as she thought about how beautiful Jean was, her long red hair, her alluring eyes, her soft skin, and who could forget her perky breasts!
"Mmmmm—oh, wait, I said that out loud," Marie mumbled out loud—apparently losing the ability to keep thoughts to herself!
After walking up a few staircases and down a few halls, Marie eventually found herself a few doors down from Jean's room. And as she awkwardly made her way towards Jean's room, she couldn't help but overhear sounds that were all too familiar to Marie. What's that sound? It sounds like-like…uh, what do you call it? Bed springs? Wait…yeah, that's the sound. Where's that coming from? Marie asked herself, stopping a few feet short from Jean's room as her drunken mind tried to figure out where the sound was coming from.I'm hearing something else…is that—is that—is that moaning, heavy breathing? Marie asked herself again, too drunk to realize the obvious. "Storm must have her boyfriend over…gross," she mumbled to herself before stumbling towards Jean's door. "Why is Jean's door open?" Marie asked out loud to no one else in particular as she moved towards the door.
As Marie moved closer to Jean's room, she noticed that the sexual sounds were growing louder and louder, and before Marie could prepare herself for what would happen next, she opened the door and walked inside, to find something that made her blood turn cold. "Jean!" Marie called out in surprise, her eyes wide as she struggled to comprehend what she was seeing before her.
She stumbled back as the sight of Jean in bed with Scott served as a powerful force that pushed against her. She fell back and landed with a thump, her drunken gaze fixed on the form of Jean Grey on top of Scott Summer, moving up and down, causing the bed springs in the bed to squeak.
It took Jean a moment to realize that Marie was there, and as she turned her head towards the door, her heart cracked at the sight of a broken Marie looking back at her with a lost and haunted look.
"Marie?" Jean began, her sweaty face staring back at Marie with regret. Jean stopped what she was doing immediately, and with a look of regret and sadness, she mouthed the words, "I'm sorry" before Scott's voice entered the horrific picture.
"Why did you stop? I'll tell you when you can stop—what are you looking at? You're supposed to be looking at—" Scott began, stopping when he followed Jean's gaze to the hollowed form of Marie, who was slumped up against Jean's bedroom wall, staring at Jean with a look that would haunt Jean for the rest of her days. "Oh, Rogue, how nice to see you. You can leave now," Scott responded coldly, before placing rough kisses along Jean's bare chest. "Now, where were we?" Scott said roughly, choosing to ignore the broken hearted Marie.
"I'm so sorry, Marie. It was the only way…" Jean replied, her heart slowly breaking in two when she saw the tears form on Marie's face.
"How could you?" Marie asked in a whisper, her body numb from both the effects of the alcohol and Jean's betrayal.
Jean opened her mouth and tried to say something that would relieve her lover's pain, but before Jean could even attempt to say anything, Marie forced herself up off of the floor and quickly ran out of the room.
"Marie, wait!" Jean called out, forcing herself away from Scott with such force that she fell off the bed and onto the floor.
She quickly grabbed for her pants and swiftly pulled them on before grabbing for her shirt and racing out of the room to chase after Marie. If it wasn't for the fact that Marie was too drunk to move very fast, Jean would never have caught her. And as Jean managed to grab a hold of Marie before Marie could get as far as the end of the corridor, she turned Marie around to face her, and forced the girl against her. She held Marie as tightly as she could, whispering apologies that fell on deaf ears as the two cried hysterically against each other. Jean stroked Marie's hair as she attempted to explain everything, but it was useless, Marie was too wrapped up in her own pain to hear anything that Jean was telling her. It took all the strength Marie had just to allow Jean to touch her without thinking of how she saw Jean on top of Scott just moments earlier.
"I'm so sorry, Marie, I had no other choice—I—I didn't know what else to do! He found out about us and he—"
"Jean," Scott called out calmly as he stepped out of the room with only a towel to cover himself. "Marie, care to step away from my girlfriend," he stated, his ruby lenses taunting Marie.
"She's not your girlfriend!" Marie yelled back, anger rising within her as Jean attempted to calm the teen.
"Well, she certainly isn't 'your' girlfriend," Scott replied cruelly.
"She's not your girlfriend!" Marie repeated in her drunken anger, her hands balled up into little fists.
"Well, after tonight, I think it is pretty clear who Jean 'really' loves—and no, Rogue, that person isn't you," Scott began, smiling like a fool as he watched Marie push the crying Jean Grey away before marching in a drunken stride towards Scott. "Besides, Jean needs a real man, and not a little weak and pathetic pizza-faced adolescent like—" Scott continued viciously, before being interrupted by the small but enraged fist that collided with his lower jaw, which ultimately forced him off his unanticipated feet, to land hard against the hard, cold floor.
"MARIE!" Jean exclaimed, her hands rising to her mouth in shock, her shirt barely on and pants partly done up. She raced over to Marie, who seemed to have lost her balance from the impact of her fist connecting to Scott's jaw, and tried to keep herself from falling over.
"Stay…back…" Marie ordered as she pushed Jean away when the doctor tried to grab a hold of her.
"Marie, please, you have to understand!" Jean cried, not caring about the fact that Storm had now emerged from her room to see what all the commotion was about.
"No!" Marie slurred, pushing Jean away as she tried to get away from it all. But before she could get more than a few steps away from the doctor, nausea took hold of her, and before she knew it, Marie had her hand propped up against the wall for support as the sickness exited her mouth and landed on the floor next to the unconscious Scott.
"Oh shit!" Storm exclaimed in response to seeing Marie begin to vomit all over the floor, with Jean trying to get close to Marie without being pushed away by the drunken teen. "I'll go get something to clean this up—don't move!" Storm continued, oblivious to the drama that had unfolded moments beforehand—something that Jean could actually take the time to appreciate as she struggled to come up with her next course of action.
"Marie, please, let me help you—"
"Get away from me—" Marie responded harshly as she pushed Jean away once again, before bending forward to release more alcohol mixed with pizza from her stomach.
Jean tried to contain her tears, but the more that she realized just how much she had fucked up—again—the more that she realized that because of what she had done, she had destroyed whatever chance she had left with Marie. Their relationship was as good as dead—and that did not sit well with Jean.
"Marie, I'm sorry, ok, I'm sorry!" Jean managed to say through her tears. She grabbed onto Marie, forcing her around to look at her before continuing on with her apology, "I fucked up. I know. But I did this for us!" Jean replied, her hands moving from Marie's shoulders to the girl's face, holding her face in a position so that the girl was looking directly in her eyes. "For us..!" Jean repeated, smiling as she hoped that this would get through to the girl.
"No…" Marie replied quickly, her eyes hollow and emotionless as she violently shook her head from side to side. "No…us…" Marie finished, forcing Jean's hands away from her face just in time before her dreaded powers would naturally kick in.
"No!" Jean quickly denied as she grabbed for Marie's protected shoulders, shaking the girl violently at first, denying what her drunken lover had just said to her. "I won't accept that. Not now, not ever. I just won't!" Jean gave the girl one last violent shake before Marie pushed Jean away from her as hard as she could, forcing Jean to collide with the wall behind her. "Marie, please…tell me what to say that will make you stay…" Jean whispered her voice leaving her as her fear of losing Marie came closer and closer to reality.
It seemed to have taken a few extra moments for Marie to understand what Jean had just said to her, her grief mixed with the alcohol causing a devastating affect on the girl.
"There's nothing…you can do…" Marie began, her balance threatening to fail her at any moment. "Face it…Jean…you will…never admit that you…love me—"
"But I do!" Jean interjected as she fought to control the affects of Marie's words on her confused and misleading heart.
Marie just shook her head and stared knowingly at Jean. "No…no more… no more head games with you. If this is what…what…love is…" Marie continued, pausing at the threat of vomiting once again, "…then I want…no part of it…or you," Marie finished, before releasing another impressive batch of alcohol and pizza-scented vomit onto the floor.
Jean was heartbroken, she didn't know what to say, all she could do was watch Marie struggle to empty her stomach of the alcohol. When she thought that she had found the right words that would force Marie to change her mind and to give her—yet again—another shot, Marie suddenly regained some composure and ran as fast as she could to the other side of the hallway and away from the distressed Jean Grey, who called out to her ex-lover uselessly.
"MAAAAAARIIIE..!" Jean cried out hysterically as she collapsed onto the floor, her hands covering her face as she continued to hate herself for all that she knew she was responsible for. She was lost, alone, and without the one person that cared for her more than anything else in the world. Jean blew it, and she knew it—but a part of her still wanted to shift the blame on Marie for not being as understanding as Jean needed her to be. The selfish side of Jean Grey told her that Marie was responsible for the relationship failing—it was 'her' that abandoned Jean and left her feeling cold and numb. It was Jean's only way to deal with the biggest mistake of her life, which she would have to live with for the rest of her days without her one and only, her soul mate, Marie…