A/N: Hey, guys, are you still with me?

Sorry for the long delay. This chapter is a bit smaller, but I think it brings some new perspective into the characters. Enjoy and tell me what you think.


Chapter 6.

"How long will you be gone?"

"A day… two at most. I need time to sort things out… to figure where I start, and where Madelyne and the Phoenix end."

"I didn't mean to hurt you when I asked you to marry me, Jean."

"You said memories can't hurt, Scott. But I keep reliving their lives… their love for you."

"I was wrong, Jean. Memories do hurt… a lot."

"Goodbye, Scott."

"Don't be away long. Come back to me. Please, come back to Christopher and me."


Scott felt Jean's back muscles tensing under him. Half a second later, he heard her asking.

"W-What did you say?"

He hesitated, unsure of what to respond. "I asked if you were alright," he answered after a moment. He let go off his wife and got up.

Jean straightened her damaged dress, got off the kitchen table and turned around to face him. "No. After that."

Scott quickly pulled his pants up. "I didn't say anything."

"No, but… you thought about something," she said.

"Well, yes. I was thinking about how much I missed being with you," Cyclops responded, reaching out with his hand to caress her cheek. "This was so-"

"Bullshit!" the redhead slapped his hand away. "You were thinking if that's how I've imagined being taken by Logan!"

'Shit,' Scott cursed mentally. Jean looked and sounded absolutely livid. What could he possibly say to his telepath wife that wouldn't send him straight to the doghouse? Unless…

"I didn't give you permission to read my mind."

The woman couldn't believe her ears. "What?"

"I warned you to stay out of my mind," Cyclops reminded her in an even tone.

Fuming, Jean put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Oh, don't you dare turn this around on me, Scott Summers. Answer me!"

From behind his visor, Cyclops returned the glare. "I don't need to answer because that wasn't really a question, was it, Jean? You're an omega level telepath – you know exactly what you heard! And what you heard was me, your husband of more than a decade, speculating if now that we've fucked like animals on the kitchen table, maybe you won't find in yourself the need to seek Wolverine in the woods again."

After years of refining his reflexes in battles and Danger Room sessions, Cyclops should have seen Jean's punch coming. Her fist struck his jaw hard, and he had to wonder how much telekinesis she had added to the blow.

"Fuck you!" she yelled and stormed out of the boathouse. Scott watched through the destroyed front porch how she propelled herself in the air and disappeared into the night sky. All the while, his left palm kept holding his sore jaw.

"Jesus… What have I done?"

xxx

Hovering in the air thirty feet above ground level, Jean realized she missed Phoenix's fire. If she still had access to that power, she would easily burn all the Cyclops currently firing at her from the ground. Telepathy was useless, so she used telekinesis to strike back.

She raised the first two in the air, then released them, not missing the sound of broken ribs as their bodies impacted against the floor. The next one had the oxygen flow cut from his lungs and immediately fell unconscious. Another pair tried to surprise her with a simultaneous attack, but she deflected it with her telekinetic force field and ripped the visors off their faces, prompting them to close their eyes. Then she made them face each other and forced their eyelids open. The resulting uncontrolled optic beams sent them flying in opposite directions and made them hit their backs against the steel wall. They didn't get up.

"Jeannie, darling… that's enough," Wolverine spoke from the observation booth. Beside him, Archangel, Beast, and the White Queen were also watching the redhead. The control panel told them she had been running that Danger Room session for the last twenty minutes.

Jean ignored them and focused on her next targets. Her uniform was soaked, and she had to stop for a moment to wipe the sweat off her forehead. It didn't matter. As long as the designated program kept throwing Cyclops at her, she would keep beating them.

The next two had their necks snapped as soon as they emerged.

"Oh, my stars and gathers! What has Fearless done this time?" Hank asked his companions.

"I hope dear Scott has finally come to his senses and dumped that lunatic. Look at her! She's completely out of control!" Emma commented in horror, pointing at the woman locked alone in the Danger Room killing A.I. copies of her husband.

"On the contrary," Logan said, recognizing the pattern. "That's Red's way of keeping in control."

They saw as Jean finally descended to the floor and resisted another Cyclops' concussive beams, protected inside a tk cocoon. She closed the distance to him, her black uniform partially torn by now. When she was finally within range, she began to punch and kick him anywhere she could. Warren's eagle eyes noticed that she was crying.

"I've seen enough. I'm going to warn Scott to keep away from that woman," the White Queen said and left.

"My friends, I believe it's past time we stopped the program and helped our friend instead. Jean is clearly unwell," Beast proposed.

"I'll talk to her," Wolverine said and started to move to the door, but Archangel grabbed his forearm to stop him.

"I should go," he stated, and before the Canadian could utter a growl, added, "I have a hunch you may be part of the problem, Logan. Besides, I know exactly what Jean is going through."

Wolverine eyed Warren for a moment. "Fine," he finally agreed and exited the room.

"I'll head to bed, then – it's well past midnight. Call me if you or Jean need me," Hank said and followed suit.

Now alone in the observation booth, Archangel pressed the stop button on the control panel. The Cyclops' copies faded away, and Jean immediately looked up.

"Turn it on," she demanded, her green orbs reddish.

From behind the glass window, Warren locked eyes with her. "Only if you let me join you."

"Why? You want to beat the crap out of Scott too?" the redhead asked.

"Maybe," Archangel replied. "Or maybe I just want to be there for my friend, like she's been there for me in the past."

They kept staring at each other, trying to read the hidden motive behind their actions, until Jean finally acquiesced. "Come in."

Warren typed a different command on the panel, then opened the glass window and flew into the Danger Room to land beside the woman. Suddenly, Apocalypse emerged in the room.

"Danger Room, stop!" Jean commanded. Apocalypse's figure froze on the spot, and she glared at her friend. "This isn't the program I was running."

"No, but this is the program you need to run. It is Apocalypse that you should be fighting, Red, not your husband."

"Apocalypse is dead," she replied.

"Physically, yes; but mentally, he's very much alive inside Scott. You shouldn't get this out of perspective," Archangel reasoned.

"Warren, I've personally released Nur from Scott's mind. I'm the one who set him free."

"No one is ever free from that monster, Jeannie. Believe me – I talk from personal experience," the blonde said.

"But you've managed to rise above the darkness, Warr. You don't mistreat your friends… You've never acted like a goddam jerk around the woman you loved."

Archangel shook his head. "You're wrong. I tried to kill my best friends after Apocalypse transformed me – you were one of them. I would have killed the whole X-Factor if Iceman's trick hadn't worked."

Jean remembered that. "You attacked an ice dummy, but you thought you had killed Bobby instead. That made you snap out of Apocalypse's influence," she said.

"Exactly. And Betsy… God knows she had to endure a lot of my tempers. But she supported me through all of them because she believed there was a man worth loving underneath Apocalypse's darkness. She never gave up on me," Archangel told Jean, remembering his deceased girlfriend with sadness and gratitude. "The question is… Does your love for Scott is enough to allow you to forgive him?"

Jean's eyes filled with tears again. "You don't know what he's done, Warren. The things he says…"

"I know he hasn't hurt you physically, Red, otherwise Wolverine would already have his guts hanging from the mansion's walls. I would never ask you to forgive Scott if he'd laid a finger on you."

"That's not what happened," she confirmed. Quite the opposite, actually… She was the one who had hit her husband.

"Good, otherwise I would have to help Logan," Warren said, earning a small smile from the woman. "Look, Jeannie… I know the kind of insecurities that Nur can leave on a soul. And as I recall a wise redhead telling me once, Apocalypse only took one night from me – and that was enough to mess with my head for years. Well, Apocalypse was in Scott's mind for months, completely merged with him. No one, not even someone as well adjusted as Cyclops, could survive that unscathed."

Jean contemplated her friend's words. Indeed, it had taken Warren many years to overcome the changes that Apocalypse had caused to his mind, not to mention his body. During that period, she had never cogitated giving up on him. Now her husband was going through a similar situation, but much more intense. Shouldn't the man she loved be granted the same opportunity?

"So, what do you say, Red? Can you give that lucky idiot who's never deserved you another chance?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'll give it a thought while you and I kick Apocalypse's butt."

Archangel smiled and opened his wings, preparing for battle. "Sounds like a plan."

xxx

Scott had been pacing around the living room for the last thirty minutes, ever since Jean had left. Part of him wanted to go after her and apologize for his inadequate thinking, but he couldn't leave his son alone, especially after the Marauders' attack. On the other hand, something deep in his soul told him he shouldn't have to apologize for a thought. They had just had a great time after months apart, and he hadn't meant for Jean to hear that particular thought. Why did she have to pry in his head?

No, that wasn't fair. He knew Jean hadn't pried – he had sensed their old rapport coming alive during their lovemaking, inadvertently. He had felt her emotions – her surprise, her love, her relief – the same way she had probably felt his. They loved each other, and that had always been enough for them. Why wasn't it enough anymore?

"Cyke," he heard all of a sudden. "Ya got a minute?"

"Logan." The man was standing in his living room, and he hadn't even noticed him arriving. It was always him, Logan, poking that feral nose in his and Jean's business. "What do you want?"

"How's the kid?" Wolverine began.

"Sleeping. What do you want?" Cyclops questioned again, impatiently.

The Canadian gave two steps forward. "I know ya and I have never been close, bub, but I feel ya need to hear a few words from me. Jeannie's beatin' the shit outta ya in the Danger Room right now, but I'm sure Frost's already told ya that," he said.

"So I've heard," Scott responded.

"I don't know what kinda mess ya've been up to lately, but I've never seen Red so pissed, and I don't like the sight of it. So fix it."

"Right. Are you a licensed therapist now, Wolverine?"

"No, and I don't think ya should be lookin' for any more of those… especially the blonde kind."

Of course, the bastard would bring his affair with Emma up. "Are you here to give me marital counselling, Logan?" Scott asked. "As far as I know, your marriages haven't ended up well."

Wolverine wasn't there to fight, so he decided not to take the bait. "Ya've changed, Cyke. I know it's not completely your fault that ya've become an asshole, but ya can't keep usin' Apocalypse as an excuse to treat Jeannie like shit forever. For some fucked up reason, that woman loves ya. It's time ya stopped takin' your luck for granted."

Scott snorted. "Or what? You'll gut me? You'll show Jean what a real man is by fucking her in the woods like an animal?"

Logan felt his knuckles itching and had to remind himself that he was there for Jean. Heck, his fists would already be in one-eye's face if it weren't for her. "Ya know, Jeannie came to me that night. She was complainin' 'bout how distant ya were. She kissed me, and I told her things would never work between us," he revealed. "Ya've got no idea how much restraint it took me to tell her that. I don't think I'll be able to refuse her a second time."

Cyclops gritted his teeth. "Are you threatening me, Logan?"

"Threatening ain't my style, one-eye. I'm more of a doer." He turned around and moved to the wrecked front door.

"Why did you refuse her, Wolverine?" Scott asked before the Canadian could leave.

Logan didn't bother to turn around. "'Cause I thought ya could make Jeannie happy. Prove me right, and I'll keep my distance from her. Prove me wrong, and I'll make sure ya never touch your wife again," he declared. "Your call, bub."