A/N - robbiepoo, you know for a fact I am an evil cliffhanger lover. They make me happy. And you know ... when I get my stress level to back off enough to be able to focus on finishing the edits on the original 906 universe? You'll see how much evil cliffhangers are like BREATHING for me. :D They bring me that much joy.
Chapter Two: Separation Anxiety
When Scott woke up in the cell, he had to shake his head to dispel the sharp headache that always came after a psychic attack, and then he took quick stock of himself and his surroundings. He wasn't surprised to find himself locked in, though he was surprised - and relieved - that at least so far, it looked like he wasn't, well, missing anything. He also didn't have any cuts or even a telltale bruise in the crook of his elbow.
But that just meant that Sinister was busy with something else - someone else - and considering Scott couldn't see anyone else, that only had him panicking more.
"Jean? Mom? Dad?" he called out, trying to blast the door - but of course, he wasn't even glowing. There had to be a dampener up - at least in the cell area.
"Oh, good; you're awake," came the response from Jean, though it was hard to tell where she was apart from simply being on the other side of the door to his cell.
"Where's Sam?"
"I don't know." It was clear from Jean's tone that she was panicked. "I haven't seen her or your mom since we got here!"
Scott let out a frustrated sound and ran a hand through his hair. "And Essex?"
"I haven't seen him either," Jean said quietly, which had Scott swearing under his breath.
"We'll figure this out," he said, though he was pacing a path, falling silent as he wracked his brain for something he could use.
It was clear when Logan woke up if nothing else because he started swearing in about a dozen different languages as he paced his cell. He kicked the door, then swore a little more before Scott could hear him … doing … something. There was a muted sort of scraping sound as Logan growled quietly - only punctuated when he was obviously holding his breath. And always followed by a curse.
"Dad, what's going on?" Scott called through the bars.
There was a little louder growl for a moment - followed by a little more scraping and then a heavy thump as Logan slipped from where he'd climbed the walls and hit the floor. "Tryin' to find a way out," Logan replied. "I can't use my claws."
"My optic blasts aren't working either," Scott admitted.
"There's always a weak point to these kinda doors," Logan said through his teeth before he clearly started the process of climbing all over again.
"What are you doing?" Scott asked, genuinely curious - and wondering if he could do the same.
"Climbin' the walls," Logan said - and it was clear from the direction of his voice that he was pretty high up. "Need to find somewhere I can lever the door off the hinges."
Scott nodded quietly, looking over the door to his own cell, though he didn't have the same experience to know what to look for. "We broke the last one down. Probably why we're in these cells this time."
"I've seen doors like this," Logan said. "I just can't remember how to break the damn things. It'd be easier if you were in here to help with the lever when I figure it out."
"Also, probably on purpose," Jean said softly.
"Where's K?" Logan asked, still working at a small spot near the top of the door.
"I don't know," Jean admitted, her voice shaking slightly. "He teleported off with her and Sam, and I don't know where they went. His goons took us here."
"She's probably too damn close to him," Logan said half under his breath, then swore when he lost his angle, his balance and fell hard, knocking the breath out of him with a woosh.
"We'll just… maybe when we're not in the cells we can… do something," Jean offered. "At least try to figure out where K and Sam are."
A few minutes passed before Logan went right back to it - he hadn't responded to Jean's half-formed thought, and he was working pretty hard at finding a way to break out when he finally walked away from the door and took better stock of the cell he was in. There wasn't much there.… A bed was about the biggest thing in the room, and for a long time, he just stared at it, thinking it over. With a scowl firmly on his features, he crossed the cell to the bed, flipped it, and started tearing the frame apart. The noise of the bolts coming out of the frame filled the cell for a long while before the pipes that made it up clanged to the ground - echoing around him. He couldn't do too much, but he thought if he could rig something up to help with the levering issue that wouldn't involve using his arm as the lever, that would help things.
Of course, putting it into practice proved that wasn't really going to do much, and after trashing what was left of the frame, he simply started pacing the room, hands on his hips and growling the whole while. If he could only use his damn claws, this stupid door wouldn't be an issue. But Essex had been sure to keep that an impossibility with the metal gloves shackled to Logan's hands. He was winding up to start wrecking things again when he kicked the mattress and then very abruptly stopped. The growl dropped away as he stared at the mattress on the floor. He knelt down and ripped the side of it open to pull out a long, thin piece of metal … then quietly set to work trying to pick the lock on the stupid gloves. It was delicate work - a far cry from the trashing and thrashing he'd been doing before. But not something he didn't know how to do. The trouble, of course, was that the metal covering his hands made gripping the wire that much more difficult.
Before long, Logan had gotten a second wire and held it between his lips as he tried to gently trip the tumblers in the tiny lock. Of course … that didn't do Jean and Scott any good worrying after the absolute tangle of snarls, growls, and curses he'd been tossing around not long before.
Of course, the snarls and growls covered the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. And when Essex got to Logan's cell and saw what he was up to, his expression twisted into one of rage, and he froze Logan in place before he projected pain into his mind. "Must you be so willful?"
"Leave him alone," Scott bit out, since Logan was pretty well stuck.
"I came down here for a reason, Mr. Summers, and I'll not be listening to any of this … wasteful nonsense. You'd do well to concern yourself with your own well being - and that of Miss Grey."
"Don't touch her," Scott snapped back.
"Not right now, of course," Essex replied as he had his Marauder drag Logan out behind him. "I have far too much work to do."
"Where are you taking him?" Jean demanded.
"I don't see what business it is of yours," Essex said. "But if it will keep you from fretting so, then I'm taking him to the best method I can think of to keep him contained - and out of trouble."
Jean narrowed her eyes at that. "That better mean you're letting him see his daughter."
But Essex simply laughed at that, not really answering her either way as they left Scott and Jean where they were in their cells, both of them fuming and feeling frustratingly helpless.
It was another hour after Logan was gone before the relative silence of the cell block was broken when the first of Logan's screams echoed from a far-off sounding area from where they were.
Jean was literally shaking with anger, especially when it was clear Logan couldn't stop himself. But it was when she heard a second voice underneath Logan's and realized that it was Scott trying to yell for his dad that something just… snapped.
Jean wasn't even aware of what happened - she knew that when that something got loose, she went from shaking in fury to standing in literal fire that melted the door blocking her from getting to Scott and his family.
She panicked as soon as she saw the flames, but… it didn't hurt. In fact, it was like standing close to a campfire, a nice sort of heat that felt good as it burned a little brighter around her.
She gasped - and then, just like that, the fire was out, and Jean was left standing in the still-smoking remains of the doorway.
She blinked as she looked around herself, almost holding her breath, but when the fire wasn't coming back… she decided to rush over to Scott's cell and unbolt the door, her eyes wide and her breath caught in her throat.
At first, Scott looked like he was ready for a fight when the door opened, then relieved to see Jean. And then he saw the molten door. "Jean, what…?"
"I don't know," she breathed out. "It just… happened."
"Did Essex-"
"No, I've been awake this whole time," Jean said. But when Logan screamed again, she shook her head. "We'll… we'll figure it out later."
"Right. Yeah." Scott shook his head and started down the hall. "Can you find Sam? I know Mom and Dad are hard for you to pinpoint ... "
Jean shook her head. "I can't even hear you yet."
"Then how…?"
"No idea." Jean was hugging herself tighter, and it was clear that the only reason she wasn't freaking out more was that she could hear Logan screaming and wanted to get to him.
Scott frowned Jean's way and then let out a breath. "We'll figure it out," he promised her, giving her hand a quick squeeze - and then keeping hold of her hand when he could feel her shaking slightly.
The two of them rushed down the hall, though they came screaming to a stop when they did burst into the room where Essex had Logan pinned down to an examination table and was cutting into him - while he was still awake.
But once they were there at that end of the hall, they were outside the dampening field. And while Scott was frozen in honest horror, Jean reacted in anger, tossing Essex away from Logan hard enough that he slammed into the wall.
"Where are Sam and K?" Jean demanded, her voice a little rougher than usual as she tried to control the shake to her voice.
"How did you get out of your cell?" Essex asked, even as the diamond in his forehead glowed a bit brighter.
Jean narrowed her eyes as she felt Essex pricking at her mind. But unlike the last time he'd broken in, this time, she was fueled by that something from before, and she could feel it gnawing at her again. "You didn't answer my question," she said evenly, while Scott rushed to get the restraints undone to free up Logan.
"That's because they belong to me - and are, as before, none of your concern," Essex replied in a cold tone.
Jean let out a noise of disbelief before she simply drove herself into his mind, a searing telepathic sword cutting through his defense with a heat that she didn't realize was physical until she had K and Sam's location from his mind and focused on reality again - to find that there were once again flames around her, even if, this time, it was just a few and not quite the full-body experience that had melted the door down.
She took a breath and tried to get herself back under control, but when she looked over to see that Scott was trying to talk Logan down from a full-blown panic attack, it was hard to hold anything back, and she simply tore Essex's consciousness to shreds - putting him to sleep and making sure it hurt when it happened.
"I know where they are," she said, already rushing past Logan and Scott. "I'll be right back."
Scott couldn't come up with anything to say fast enough - not that Jean was sure she wanted to hear it. She knew he had questions - she had questions. But they had to get Scott's family out of there before anything else happened.
She still hadn't managed to stop the flames when she got to K's door and unbolted it, though the fire was just flickering at the edges of her hair and eyes. K had Sam clutched to her chest, trying to settle the little girl out, though the tear trails on her cheeks were easy enough to see and it was obvious she wasn't expecting a rescue.
"Come on," Jean said, trying very hard not to get angrier when she saw how upset both K and Sam were - because she didn't need to be on fire around a baby. And, to her surprise, that knowledge seemed to settle the fire out, until it faded to nothing. "We have to get out of here. Essex is down, but I don't know for how long."
"Did you find Logan?" K asked, though it was clear she wasn't waiting around.
Jean nodded. "Scott's with him," she said, reaching out to Scott telepathically so they could meet up someplace that Essex was not. "They're on their way to meet us." She was trying hard to keep it together, telling herself she could freak out as soon as they were out.
The relief from both Logan and Scott was palpable when they met up with the girls on their way out of Essex's hidden lab, though it was obvious that now they were out, they had no idea where to go next.
Jean bit her lip. "I… I know where to go. I saw the layout of this place in his mind," she explained, though she was glad when Scott took her hand so she didn't fall apart as she took the was glad he knew better than to ask her anything until they had put the house behind them and found a car to put even more distance between them and Essex.
No one spoke for a long time, and it was clear they were all more focused on taking stock of themselves and each other than they were on conversation. But whatever Jean had done to force Essex into unconsciousness… it wasn't letting up. At least, there was no sign of Essex or his huge minions, even after they'd put ten minutes of driving between them and the house.
When they finally found the jet, Logan was at least a little more with it. It was clear he was still worn, and although he was healed up, he was still on edge. But he was pushing it back so he could take care of his family, looking for any devices on the jet that shouldn't be there as the others loaded up quickly.
K wasn't letting go of Sam for anything, though thankfully, Sam at least had started to settle out once they were on the jet and even ate a little before drifting off to sleep. Scott was prepping the jet for takeoff, his jaw locked and clearly betraying how upset he was.
But Jean… Jean was done as soon as she sat down. She tried to keep it together; she really did. But she was tired, she was scared, and she could still feel that something inside of her, like it was sleeping, not gone. Just waiting for something else to wake it up so it could come screaming back to life.
She pulled her knees up to her chin, trying for just a few more minutes to keep it together, but she… couldn't. She burst into tears, hugging her knees tightly and unable to stop crying.
"Jean," K said after Sam started to snuggle in. "Do you want some company while you wait for Scott?" On saying it, she'd already gotten to her feet - intent on bringing Jean a blanket and a bottle of water at the very least.
Jean glanced up at K from behind her knees and nodded gently. "Please."
K grabbed a blanket and tucked the water bottle in the crook of her arm before she came over to Jean and finagled a way to cover her up with one arm - and then put her arm across Jean's shoulder and pulled her into a one-armed hug, still holding Sam with her other arm, even if she didn't have a thing to say.
You… you might not want to be that close with Sam, Jean said, sounding miserable even telepathically. I… caught on fire...
K leaned over to kiss her forehead. "I'll risk it."
"Really." Jean looked up at K with wide eyes. "I don't know how I did it. There was a dampener and everything and if anything happened to you or Sam or Scott and - and I don't know what's going on and-"
"Jean," K said quietly. "Just try to breathe, okay?" She shook her head. "I don't know what happened either, but I can tell you the scent was different."
Jean looked alarmed at that. "It… what? It wasn't me?"
"I don't know how to explain it, but … it was you, but it wasn't."
Jean bit her lip and nodded. It made sense in a way she didn't know how to explain, like she knew exactly what K was saying but didn't know it. "Are… are you okay?" she asked, pulling the blanket around her shoulders a little tighter.
"Subjective," K replied. "I'll be fine. How about you?"
"I really don't know," Jean admitted. I can still feel… it.
Maybe your professor will have some answers, K replied gently. Just try to relax until then. Whatever that was … it got everyone out. Everyone.
Jean nodded, wiping her eyes with the palm of her hand. "What about Sam?"
"She's alright," K promised. "All he did to her was to prick her heel and gave her a normal sort of exam."
Jean let her shoulders drop in relief. "Well, that's good at least. She looked so mad when I came in…. I was worried…"
"She was upset from hearing her dad." K tucked the little one a little closer. "Though I don't know if she knew it was him or not."
"You could hear him too?" Jean winced. "That… that was what got me to snap. That and hearing Scott get upset…"
"Yeah, he was hard to miss," K replied. "And it was mostly punishment for being so bold as to make good progress escaping. I heard that much at least."
"Yeah, Essex said he was more interested in you and Sam than us," Jean said, making a face. "Not that it makes it any better."
"Yeah, I heard all about it," K said quietly.
"Well, he can't stand up to that… whatever it was. So maybe… if I talk to the professor… we have a way to stop him now, at least," Jean said, trying hard to find a silver lining, especially since Logan and Scott were now headed for the cockpit and quietly talking between the two of them, and she didn't want to make a scene crying when everyone was hurt.
"They're both holding on by a thread right now," K whispered to her. "When we get back, I don't expect either of them to let us out of their sight."
"I know," Jean said. "I can hear Scott without even trying."
"Hell, I can hear Scott," K said dryly.
"And I can hear Logan by that measure," Jean said, managing a small sort of smirk at that.
"They're pretty transparent, aren't they?" K said quietly, waiting for one of them to turn around, since she was very sure they were listening in.
"Dad's more obvious than I am. I have shades to hide half my face," Scott said dryly.
"You really think you're less readable?" K asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Well, yeah," Scott said with a shrug.
K let out a snort of a laugh at that and then turned her head to look out the window - if nothing else because it should get a smirk out of Jean. "Not when he's trying to hide it," she said.
"Well, that's entirely different," Scott said as he came to sit down on the other side of Jean and slip his fingers through hers. "You girls okay - all of you?" he asked not just Jean but Sam and K.
"Yeah, fine," K said, shifting so that Scott could see Sam sleeping peacefully.
"Yeah, right," Scott said, though when Jean leaned over to put her head on his shoulder, he no longer had anywhere to go, so he leaned back slightly to give her more space to curl in if she wanted.
K smirked at the two of them and then got up to step around them. "If you two are going to share a blanket, I am not going to supervise."
"We don't need supervision," Jean said, shaking her head at K.
"Or direction. Or instruction - or ideas," K said, sure to give her the most ridiculous look she could as she turned to walk toward the cockpit. She knew she was being over the top, but she hoped it was enough to break the mood at least a little.
Scott shook his head, knowing full well what his mom was up to - but if he was honest, he was grateful for it, because it was helpful to have a conversation while he refocused on Jean, who was still clearly … off. But once K was up front with Logan, Scott made sure to give Jean a quick kiss and look her over a little closer. "So, that was…" He trailed off, suddenly realizing that there was absolutely no way he could find a good way to explain what it was, exactly.
"Yeah, it was," Jean agreed. "It really was."
"Maybe the professor can help," Scott said after a too-long silence, which was really more of a mark of how out of their depth they were than anything else, since usually, at the least, they could talk telepathically.
"Can we just… sit here?" Jean asked, and Scott nodded, pulling her a little tighter to him.
As soon as they were in the air and up to altitude, Logan switched over to autopilot and then turned to simply wrap up K and Sam. He wasn't in the mood to talk, but he absolutely wasn't going to wait to get back to New York before checking them both over, either. And that's exactly how the three of them stayed for most of the flight back, too.