I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
- Revelation 22:13

Jean didn't want to go back to school. It was Sunday, late in the afternoon, and even though she was physically ready to head off to BHS the next morning, she wasn't sure she was mentally up to it. After a rollercoaster of a battle with a creature of unstoppable power, she didn't feel like returning to face the stresses of high school - utterly normal stresses that included traitorous friends, annoying boyfriends, maintaining a flawless GPA, and the general envy and dislike of the student body at large. No, who wouldn't want to go back to that?

Another fight with Apocalypse almost looked good in comparison.

Instead of dwelling on it, again, she decided to focus on the moment, which meant relaxing in the kitchen with Rogue, Scott, and Wolverine - possibly the three least-relaxed people in the Institute - and watching Evan scour the fridge for milk while Kurt ate his way through a package of cookies. They're going to ruin their appetites, she thought, then realized she was sounding like her mother and shuddered.

To distract herself from the original distraction, she asked the others at the table the first thing that came to her mind: "So there's still no sign of Cable?"

Scott, who had spent most of the day discussing the battle with Beast and Professor X, leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "The professor's sure he made it out alive, but he can't find him. Cerebro has nothing."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Wolverine said, then paused, suddenly on alert. "Wait - where's the Cajun?"

Evan took a break from scavenging long enough to say, "Uh - outside, I think. Why?"

With a truly angry growl, Logan popped his claws and charged out of the room. "Because someone just started my motorcycle!"

Kurt exclaimed, "This I've got to see!" and ran after him. Evan followed at top speed, milk search abandoned.

Jean exchanged a glance with Scott and Rogue. The other girl looked like she was torn between frowning and laughing.

"He wouldn't... would he?" Rogue asked.

Jean wasn't sure whether she was talking about Remy stealing the bike or Wolverine gutting him for it. Either way, there were going to be fireworks.

Scott grinned. "Only one way to find out."

The younger students were out on the lawn, playing no-powers frisbee and, as usual, cheating badly. Jean opened the door just as Remy, on Logan's bike, screeched to a stop at the base of the steps and held out a helmet. "Come on, chere!"

Rogue gave him an incredulous look and demanded, "Are you crazy?"

Wolverine emerged from the garage, shaking his head as if in pain, and promptly set off towards the thief. Despite the limited amount of time before the older mutant reached him, Remy took a few seconds to flash a truly killer smile. "Oui. You comin'?"

Rogue glanced at the approaching Wolverine, then ran down the steps, grabbed the helmet, and jumped on the back of the bike. Remy immediately opened the throttle and they roared off with Wolverine in hot pursuit.

The younger students had stopped their game and gathered by the steps. At Rogue's act of willful disobedience, half of the kids cheered. The other half had a more practical reaction.

"They're gonna clean the Danger Room for a year," Bobby said, with the authority of someone who knew what he was talking about.

Jubilee nodded. "Every day, before and after school."

"With toothbrushes," Sam added.

"That's if they come back," Kurt countered.

Evan frowned. "You think they won't?"

"No, I think he's going to catch up with them and kill them. I mean, they took his motorcycle!"

The motorcycle in question was clearing the Institute's gates. Wolverine hadn't given up, but on the open road, he had a much smaller chance at catching them. Show thus over, the students dispersed, leaving Jean and Scott standing at the top of the steps.

Scott shook his head, chuckling slightly. "Kurt's right; I wouldn't rule out the possibility."

"Me either." Privately, she hoped Wolverine wouldn't drag them back; riding off on the stolen bike, for the first time in a long time, Rogue had looked... happy. Maybe Remy would turn out to be a good addition to the school after all. She'd had her doubts, especially after the professor had caught him trying to filch the really nice silverware not five minutes after they'd returned from Egypt.

"So..." Scott said, looking about as uncomfortable as she felt with the lapse in conversation. "Um... did you get the feeling that Cable wasn't telling us everything?"

"Only about fifty times," she said lightly.

He didn't smile, but she could tell he wanted to. "Good. I thought it might've just been me."

"Nope," she said, then paused for a moment as a half-forgotten impression resurfaced. "You know, when he was telling you to leave, I got this telepathic flash. He was thinking about his father. And there was that thing about his wife... I don't know if that was sad or just... weird."

Scott tilted his head back. "Hard to imagine someone like Cable as having a family."

"Mm-hm," she murmured absently, then mentally kicked herself for forgetting. "Family" was an off-limits topic with Scott - not because he didn't want to talk about it, but because she didn't want to bring him any more pain. She glanced at him and felt even worse; he was staring at the sky, a melancholy set to his shoulders. Wanting to make amends, she stepped closer to him and did something she would probably not have dared to do otherwise: took his hand.

He started slightly and looked down, but didn't pull away. And for that, she was grateful. Once upon a time, they'd been able to do things like this with no thought to it whatsoever, but the world had changed. They had changed, and she could only hope it was going to be for the better.

Softly, she said, "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"It's okay," he said, giving her a lopsided smile. "I just - I miss them."

She didn't say anything to that, simply squeezing his hand in reassurance. His hand was warm and dry, and she could feel the calluses running along the base of his fingers; not a result of sports, although he played, but of hundreds of hours logged in flight training.

"I thought finding Alex would make it better, but it didn't," he said after a long moment. "It hurts more, in a way - knowing that I got a part of my family back, but Mom and Dad are still gone."

"I'm sorry," she said again. He nodded, his fingers tightening almost imperceptibly around hers before he let go. She curled her hand around the ghost warmth he'd left behind, already missing the contact, and wondered how many furtive hearts she'd draw in notebooks because of this. "They would be proud of you, you know."

"I guess so," he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his khakis as though he too missed the contact. Was it too much to hope that he felt it - whatever "it" was?

She could find out, of course. He wasn't a psi, he had no real defenses to speak of; even a total novice like herself could do it. Just slip into his mind and rummage around until she found what she was looking for.

And violate every shred of ethics she had.

The old-fashioned way was better. Riskier, but better. Clearing her throat, she said, somewhat more tentatively than she would've liked, "I'm proud of you."

His eyebrows went up. "Really?"

"Really."

A faintly embarrassed but pleased expression crossed his face. "Uh... thanks."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

And then she changed the topic, and they stood on the steps of the Institute talking about everything and nothing until the sun had all but disappeared and Wolverine finally returned, empty-handed and cursing so furiously that both Professor Xavier and Storm reprimanded him. And then, a little reluctantly, everyone went inside for dinner.

And - to Jean at least - the fast-approaching future seemed as bright and full of promise as two names linked within a heart.