Sessions Part 4
Author: Jozzy
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Marvel and a whole slew of people that are not me do.
Spoilers: After Zero Tolerance.
Rating: PG13 for language
Part 4
It wasn't that hard to get around the rules the Xmen had set for her. Especially since Jubilee no longer felt remorse about lying to them. She had to get out of the house. It had been several weeks since she had been able to step foot on the grounds without an escort, usually Wolverine or Gambit. But the Xmen made the same mistake twice. They settled. Once they had Jubilee back they had settled back into old routines. Routines that were the key to Jubilee's escape.
All she had had to do was wait. Jubilee knew the Xmen well enough, knew their weaknesses and faults, she had known that the time would come and she would be free again. So she had waited. Two months she had been back at the mansion. Two months she had seemingly complied to the Xmen's whims. For two months she had planned her escape.
It wouldn't be a long journey, she couldn't afford to leave the Xmen right now. She need the protection they afforded her. There were some really nasty people out looking for sweet, innocent Jubilee. People that wouldn't find her if she had anything to say about it. But she also needed to see some people. Her contacts had gone two months without her. Any longer and they just might stray.
It hadn't taken that much to escape the mansion and it's grounds. It wasn't hard to get past the locks on the front door, which the Xmen had changed when she had returned. Shutting down the security systems long enough for her to get across the lawns and to the gates. A bit of climbing, twenty feet at best. Then she had been outside, but not totally free. She had to wait, for the minute when the camera mounted on the gate passed her. Her outfit helped her blend into the shadows so that no one could see her at first glance, but if she moved anyone in the Control Room would have surely noticed. After she was clear of the camera it was only a half of a mile trek to the cab. Then she was gone.
************
"Jubilee, darling! Where have you been?"
Jubilee rolled her eyes. Dameon was a terrible liar. Trying to make his voice sound concerned, but Jubilee knew the truth. No one cared about her. Not really. They all wanted her to believe they did, but that was all a part of the game. And Jubilation Lee never lost.
Dameon owned a large club deep in the heart of New York. A fetish club to be exact. The kind of place the Xmen would never look for her. That's why it had been the perfect hide out. She had managed to stay in the city undetected by any of their physical sweeps down there. Until four months ago when business had called her to the surface.
" Cut the bullshit Dameon. I don't have the time. I just came to pick up some essentials."
Dameon laughed, "Poor Jay had to go back to the dark ages huh? How have you survived without your precious computers?"
"Not well. Now move I gotta get back before any of the guards notice I've escaped."
Dameon nodded, going from joking to serious in seconds. " But you'll be back right? You aren't ditching the project are you?"
Jubilee's eyes flared, " Of course not. I worked to hard on this shit. You can't get rid of me that easily. I'll just have to be more careful."
Reassured Dameon joked once more, " Its not like you weren't already paranoid, now your gonna go CIA on me."
She quirked an eyebrow, "The CIA? I'm much better than the CIA."
*********
It was ridiculously easy sneaking back into mansion. With the use of her very expensive hacking equipment and a direct satellite feed she was able to cause a power shortage over the house when she arrived at the gates. Using the time between the blackout and the back up power kicking in she was half way to the mansion when the safety defenses kicked in. Close enough for her plan.
When the Xmen arrived, fully suited up for battle, all they found was a very scared and confused Jubilee. She looked at them bewilderment in her eyes. It was obvious what had happened. She had been out for a walk, she had been taking a lot of them lately, and the power had gone out. She probably never even realized it. Not until she walked into a security zone, where all of the automated defenses were. When the back up power had kicked in she had been rained down on by all kinds of fire power and had been forced to take refuge and wait for the team to show up.
"Um, I'd like forgotten how seriously paranoid you people are. SO won't be making that mistake twice."
Scott sighed. " Jubilee your not supposed to be out here alone as it is. This was exactly what I was afraid of. You've been gone so long you've forgotten where all of the cannons and censors are. Something could have happened to you and we wouldn't have known."
Jubilee's eyes narrowed, " I am like SO very sorry Warden. I didn't think this was a prison and that I had to check with you before I like took a breath. Forgive me for my insolence." She stomped off towards the house.
Scott glared after the retreating figure." Logan go with her, make sure she doesn't go anywhere else she's not supposed to."
********
It was so easy to fool the Xmen, they were gullible. But Wolverine was different, not entirely an Xmen, not entirely foolish. He knew that she was faking it. Knew that she had not been out for a walk, because at the time of the power shortage he had been looking for her. He had tried to smell her out and had found nothing. Well not nothing, he had found her scent lingering by the front gate. But the trail was a familiar one to Jubilee now, she walked it every day. Probably walked it this morning, only this time she had gone a little farther.
Wolverine worried about Jubilee. She was different now, somewhere in the last year she had lost the innocence and inherent happiness that she normally exuded. She was now cold and calculating. Letting no one in past her walls. Not even her therapist, not really.
He wondered what she had been through while they had been apart. Why she had smelled of alcohol and drugs and sex when they had found her. Why she held herself so differently. The distance and cold in her eyes so harsh and cutting. It was easier to defeat someone once you understand them. And the only way Jubilee would let anyone in is if they defeated her. Wolverine's path was set, defeat Jubilee then help her pick up the pieces.
Now all he had to do was figure out what she had been up to for the past year. It was something big, something that she had never slipped about. Something that had changed her, made her this paranoid creature who loomed in shadows, had made her him. And that's what he hated most of all, that sweet, lovable Jubilee had become twisted like he was, and someway, though he didn't know how yet, it was all his fault.
Jubilee had been the last untainted relationship in his life. She had loved him unconditionally, through all of the shit of his life, since they had met, Jubilee had been there. Had never been afraid of him. Never thought he was the monster that everyone else believed him to be. Now she hated him. A blind hatred that he ,before, had only known from Sabertooth. Wolverine had the distinct feeling that the only reason she didn't attack him was his healing factor.
As they neared Jubilee's door the young girl turned on him, looking at him with a coldness that made his stomach heave. " You did your duty, get lost."
Wolverine moved towards her, "Jubilee..."
Jubilee slapped his hands away. Her eyes flaring, fire swirling within them. Insane rage masking her beautiful face. Hissing she backed away from him until her back hit the door.
"Don't touch me!!"
Placing his hands at his side, Wolverine bowed his head, not wanting look at her. God he hated this. Not being able to touch her, talk to her, be with her. The looks of righteous anger that crossed her face when he got to close or attempted to touch her. He hadn't touched her since she had been found. The first time he had seen her he had been so glad that she was alive and well he had grabbed her up into a fierce hug. Several minutes later, when the hug had ended and he had place her on the floor again, she had looked at him, then slapped him. Hard. He hadn't touched her since.
"I'm sorry darlin' I wasn't thinking. I..." Giving up on the words, which had failed him all his life he just shrugged and left.
Jubilee stood out side watching him go. His muscled back moving down the hallway towards his own room. When he had reached the door he turned back towards her, expecting to find a empty hall, but instead finding the small woman intensely staring at him. They stood there for a few moments looking at each other. A cold mask of hate on her face, and anguish radiating off his.
********
Jubilee stayed in her room for three hours, she didn't come out once in that time and allowed no one to enter her room either. In that time she managed to hook up her closet with all of her equipment and contact Dameon.
"I'm back."
"I am so glad. So tell me, how did you manage to sneak all of your things past the entire group?"
"It wasn't that hard, they aren't very observant when it comes to my activities."
Daemon chuckled, "And these are the superheroes that the world fawns over all the time? How sad."
"They're better at the heroics than at surveillance. That's my job."
"I'll bet."
"Good-bye."
The phone went dead moments later when Daemon hung up. Jubilee pulled her headset off and stuffed into a shoebox next to the large suitcase that housed her laptop. Every thing was neatly hidden within a box or piece of luggage. It would be very frustrating and time consuming, having to plug and unplug all those cords when ever she needed to use her equipment but it was also worth it.
Jubilation Lee had things she needed to do, things that required state of the art, untraceable equipment and enough privacy to use it. Since the latter was not a given she would have to scrap it together on her own.
The plan was simple Jubilee would set her body (which now woke up on command) to rise at 1:00 in the morning. She had a bed check at 12:30, right before everyone retired to their rooms. She would check her email then and get her assignments from that way. She would spend the rest of the night working on it and be in bed by 5:00, when the next bed check came. With two hours of sleep she would awake at 7:00 and go about her day per usual. She would start going to sleep earlier to make up the hours of sleep that would be missed.
Everything had been planned out. Jubilee allowed no room for mistake. Which is why she was so damn good at her job.
***********
End Part 4