A/N: Disclaimer, etc. at the beginning of part 1. I'd like to thank Wren, Kismet Noelani, Queen Galadriel, and sarah for taking the time to review (and leave nice compliments, thereby unknowingly reinforcing my superiority complex, hehe). Alas, dear Wren, Jubilee is busy in class now, but will show up just in time for the next chapter. I love her too, and I think she's weaseling her way into a larger part. Yes, the ability to weasel out of things … it's what separates us from the animals … except the weasel. (Homer Simpson) Oh, and I should probably add that I'm *ahem* borrowing some lines from Jane Austen. What? It made sense at the time …
PART 3: DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN
"So what do you think Hank will make us for dinner tonight?" The excited buzz was cut off by the solid thunk of the Professor's study door. Xavier sighed as he met the eyes of the man standing opposite him.
"You have some concerns, Logan?" No matter how hard he tried to prevent them, some things recurred with enough frequency to try the patience of Job. Logan's suspicious nature was merely one of them. What made it worse was that, equally frequently, the stocky Canadian was correct.
"Yeah." Xavier gestured for him to continue. "Somethin's bothering me about this Melusine. Something ain't right.."
"Yet you brought her here, rescued her from the mob."
"I know," Logan said without apology. "But since she's been here—it's like I know her, but I don't know her."
"Are you speaking about déjà vu?"
"Not déjà vu." A smile quirked Logan's lips, as he finally understood the root of the problem. "More like déjà smell." Xavier settled back into his chair, intrigued in spite of himself. Logan's hyperacute senses never lost their capacity to astonish. "I get her scent, I think I recognize it, but then I don't. Almost … I remember not remembering it."
"A memory block?" Xavier wondered quietly.
"You mean like on Jubilee?" Logan's eyes went wide with shock.
"Perhaps. Or it may be a memory from … before. Would you permit me?" Logan sat. "Now, let us begin. If you could recall for me the most recent occurrence of this déjà smell?"
He was walking down the hallway; the scent reached him before they did. Jean, Beast, and the girl he'd rescued last night. In the better (or more unflattering) light of day, he could see she was no girl at all, but a woman, somewhere between twenty and thirty years old. Her scent tickled his nostrils, coming from underneath the well-loved aroma that was Jean. For a moment he thought he recognized it, but then the moment was gone.
Now let's follow that smell. Logan felt the Professor rub his mental hands with satisfaction. Images flickered too fast for him to really follow: dumping Melusine on the infirmary bed; carrying her to the car, checking her pulse in the alley; a woman touching his hand as he passed her a drink. With a dizzying jerk, the scene around him leapt to life.
"Better go," he told Jubilee. The young Asian girl grabbed a tray and bolted from her seat, depriving the headwaiter of a most promising target. Logan met the guy's glare with a cocky grin and shrugged. The headwaiter continued to glare, so Logan let the grin shade ever so slightly into threatening. "Excuse me," a female voice interrupted his fun. He turned, smile fading, and faced a beautiful blonde in a pale purple dress. "Could I get a refill?" she continued, holding out an empty champagne flute. "Of course," he replied, playing the dutiful bartender to the hilt. Not only did she look good, but she smelt good too. As he handed the blonde a full glass, their fingertips brushed, sending a jolt through him that only reminded him how long it had been since…
"Better go," he told Jubilee, then returned to polishing glasses and dispensing drinks until, without warning, the wall blew in.
Xavier paused in his sifting of Logan's memories. Right there, that was when it had happened. Right when she'd touched him. Dammit! Logan cursed. The Professor's reprimand was sharp and swift. This is a tricky business, Logan! Don't fight me! Sorry.
***
Melusine plopped into the seat of the vid-phone, breathless with excitement. She remembered! Images from the past, from her past sleeted through her mind—jammed into a seafoam dress standing at the front of a church at her best friend's wedding. Watching with joyful astonishment as the child of that marriage took her first tentative steps. Melusine's hands shook as she dialed the number her wonderful memory attached to these faces, and the trembling triggered a flashback, as the fourteen-year-old Melusine hid, quaking, behind a set of patterned drapes and wished with fervent desperation, that the girl standing in the room would not see her.
It hadn't worked out that way, of course.
Please don't let her catch me here. Everything is normal, you should just go away. Melusine had repeated this thought, over and over. But her talent was still new, and she was far from mastering it. And she really hadn't gotten a good look at the curtains she was hiding behind. Immediate result: a pair of apparently mismatched window coverings and the discovery of one very frightened girl. End result: a friend she was willing, quite simply, to die for.
"The DeSantos family is not at home. Would you care to leave a message?" The artificial voice was beginning to sound a little ticked off. Melusine stabbed at the keypad, dismayed that she hadn't heard the answering program pick up. What now? she wondered. She searched her expanding trove of memories for any sort of an answer. After a moment, she reinitialized the connection, dialing another number, fidgeting nervously while the call rang through.
"Hello?"
"Diana!"
***
As he handed the blonde a full glass, their fingertips brushed. Xavier froze the memory right there, stepping out of Logan's viewpoint and into the scene itself. The other team members were bright blotches of colour against the monochromatic background of the crowd. Rogue, surveying the crowd while sipping her drink; Storm, smiling at something the woman opposite her had just said; Jubilee, serving canapés to a middle-aged man. Xavier frowned as he recognized Joshua Doors. Curiouser and curiouser, he reflected, turning back to the tableau of Logan and the blonde. Taking a good look at the face she'd tried to hide from Logan, he shook his head in dismay. What were you doing there, Melusine? His gaze settled on the champagne glass, where her fingers ever so slightly overlapped Logan's. Then, narrowing his focus, he went in, into the actual moment of contact.
It was like plunging headfirst into a raging torrent. The Professor was battered by a storm of emotions: lust, rage, excitement, envy, fear, conceit. He struggled against the assault, fearing it might bear him away, but in that moment, he regained control. Extending his own telepathic senses to their fullest, he followed the lines of Melusine's power as she gently reached into Logan's mind and erased all knowledge of her presence. Her technique, Xavier admitted, was excellent, for someone essentially untrained, but she could never have anticipated Logan's … well, she could not have anticipated Logan. But why? Why had she sought to hide from them? He turned his attention to Melusine herself.
Attractive enough, in his way. But not tall enough to tempt me…So he thinks I'm hot, does he? Well, he's right. Ah well, in one lobe and out the other. Her power flowed again. Xavier pressed against the current, trying to uncover her real purpose, but he was blocked by a sheer dark wall of psychic energy. Shields! Maybe she wasn't as untrained as he'd thought. Well, he'd just have to try a second time. But it would have to wait, he decided, as Logan's choked breathing penetrated his trance.
As the Professor finally let go of his mind, Logan lurched out of his chair. A few moments gasping on the floor, and his healing abilities had repaired his lungs enough for him to ask, "Well?"
"My most sincere apologies. I had no idea I'd taken you so deep." Logan accepted Xavier's remorse with a casual wave of his hand. "It appears that, once again, you were correct."
"I do know her?" From where? From when?
"Yes," the Professor answered, Logan's curiosity needling at him like a thousand tiny pins. Closing his eyes momentarily, he made his decision. "I think I'd better call the others," he warned, then sent out a summons to all the X-Men. Assemble in my study, immediately.
***
"Diana!" Melusine repeated, grinning in unabashed delight. On the vid screen, the face of her dearest friend displayed first shock, then joy to equal her own.
"Melusine!" exclaimed the other. "Hold on a minute, I'm in the middle of something." Diana looked up from the camera. "Scusi, privato. Benne. All better. Where are you? I've been so worried about you!"
"In Westchester. Someplace called the Xavier Institute."
"The gifted children guy?" Melusine nodded. "Oh my god, Cassie's going to be so excited when I tell her. Melusine, I was so afraid. How could you not call me for three months? What the hell were you doing?"
"Three months!" Diana frowned at her friend's exclamation. It wasn't like Melusine to lose track of time, at least not months. Static flickered across her portable phone's screen.
"Mel, let's talk about this when we see each other. Cassie and I are in Switzerland right now, but we can be back in the US by tomorrow. Do you want us to come and get you?"
Melusine closed her eyes briefly before opening them with another radiant smile. "You can certainly come and visit me! The Professor says it's fine with him. I'll see you tomorrow."
***
Melusine danced down the hallway towards the Professor's study. She passed a mirror and executed a series of graceful pirouettes. Her memory was back! Oh, a few months were missing, here and there, but surely it would only be another few days before she could reclaim her life. And Diana, and Cassandra. She paused in front of the door, asking permission to enter. She'd expected to find the Professor alone, but was surprised to find all the mutants whom Xavier called his X-Men there.
"Melusine, please close the door," the Professor requested.
She complied, then stepped into the room, excitement frothing off her in all directions. "Something has happened, I see," Xavier commented pointedly. Flushing, she immediately clamped down on her telepathic abilities.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "It's just … I remember. I've got my memory back." She nearly danced with joy there in the middle of the formal, formidable study. The door opened behind her, and one of Xavier's students slipped into the room. The girl's bright yellow jacket was a beacon that Melusine tracked around the room until she settled in place next to Logan.
"But this is wonderful news, Melusine," Hank enthused. Mais oui, wonderful news indeed, Gambit thought sourly. Wonder if la belle will 'member what she did wit' Gambit's money.
"That is good news," the Professor said with quiet authority. "Then you will be able to tell us what you were doing at Senator Carr's fundraiser last Tuesday night."
"Senator Carr?" an obviously bewildered Melusine repeated. "I'm sure I don't know. Was I there?"
"Guess your memory ain't as good as you thought," came a low growl from Logan.
END OF PART 3