Title: Awakening chapter 4: I'll Be There For You

Author: IceAngel8

Disclaimer: No one but Linda belongs to me! All of the known characters belong to their respectful owners! No infringement intended. All writing is done for the purposes of fun.

Feedback: Now this is tricky. I've recieved only 8 reviews for three chapters! Come on, I expected a little more. Make me happy! Please? I mean, I write for myself, and you, as the audience. Shouldn't I get you're opinions in return? All comments are welcomed.

Author's Notes: I've rewritten this about two times and although this is far from perfection, it's good enough to be posted. Actually, this chapter is very sweet. For all you Jean/Scott fans, I'm sorry... but you wouldn't want to read this!

Chapter Four: I'll Be There For You

Kurt, Kitty and Bobby arrived in the backyard of the Xavier Institute, by Kurt's teleporting smoke. Kitty stared at the damaged grounds with wide, startled eyes. The pool was completely in devastation and looked to be beyond repair. Half the garage, including Logan's preciously cared for motorcycle, had been heaved into the pool, where it laid at the bottom. Lots of floating debris was on either side of the pool, blocking any possible exits. Kitty couldn't see into the area where Ororo and the students were, because it was covered by a large chunk of the garage wall that had broken off and was now dangerously closing off the group. But Kitty knew she would be able to use her intangibility and phase through to them. Jean, Beast and Wolverine were all attacking the stack of debris; Jean was attempting to move the broken wall out of the way but it was water lodged and too heavy to even budge with her telekinesis; Beast and Wolverine were both in the water, clearing a path through all the garbage that lay in the pool.

"This place is a mess, Kurt. How am I supposed to reach them?" she asked, edging a little closer to the pool. Jean sensed the new arrival's presence and flew over to them, her green eyes full of trouble and distress.

"I'm going to take you there. I have to drop you into the water and then you're going to need to swim a little to reach the wall. Logan and Beast have cleared a small path for you." Jean said, extending a slender, perfectly manicured hand out to the younger girl.

Kurt nodded quickly. "It's the best plan we have, and we don't have more time to think of another one. If I could teleport inside, I would have, an hour ago. But I can't. The space inside is too small and besides, I do not know what it looks like in there. You must do this, Kitty." Kurt took her hand again and looked into her eyes.

Kitty smiled at the warmth and honesty in his eyes, beginning to feel more confident. She grabbed Jean's hand, willing all the nervousness and fright out of her mind, and then Jean lifted them both high up into the air. Although Kitty's power allowed her to walk on air, she had never tried it before. Now, as soon as her sandaled feet left the sturdiness of the ground by way of Jean's telekinesis, Kitty let out a startled gasp.

"Are you okay, Kitty?" asked Jean, giving her fellow X-Man a concerned look. "Don't worry, I've got everything under control here. I'm not going to accidentally drop you. But be prepared to jump into the pool when I give you the signal, alright?"

"Yeah, alright." Kitty nodded to show she understood. Jean gave her a reassuring look and then closed her eyes, concentrating on propelling them towards the water. Kitty watched in amazement as she was gently carried over to the pool, until Jean and she hovered just about three feet over the water.

"Okay, I'm going to lower you a little more, Kitty, and then let go. Take a deep breath. And be careful, alright?" Jean said, her eyes still firmly closed.

Kitty felt herself being lowered, an inch by an inch, until she could see Jean above her, a whole foot away. She looked down and saw the blue water, no longer as inviting as it usually seemed. Kitty took a deep breath and a moment later, Jean let go, and Kitty plunged into the cold water with a splash.

It was bone-chillingly cold in the water and she shivered. Logan's motorcycle and half the garage were lying at the very bottom of the pool, looking like a big mess of twisted metal and splintered wood. Thankfully, the X-Van, nor Jean's jeep and Scott's convertible had been parked in the garage that night, or therefore they would have been submerged right now. Kitty swam smoothly through the water, thankful that Hank and Logan had cleared a path for her through all the debris that littered the pool. When Kitty reached the shallow end of the pool, she saw the downed garage wall, blocking any possible exits for the rest of the X-Man in the water.

She concentrated, took another deep breath and phased through the wall with a whoosh. The phasing left a ticklish, almost pleasant sensation on her skin.

"Oh, Kitty, thank goodness you've arrived!" Ororo cried, wrapping her arms around the girl's slender form. "You are an angel. A beautiful brown- haired angel."

"Ah, don't thank me. I'm just doing what's right," Kitty blushed, pleased at Ororo's choice of words to describe her. It was great to know that she was an angel in some people's eyes.

"Hey, Kit. Glad you came. I don't think I can stay here much longer. The water is not as great as it was before," Jubilee said, waving meekly to her friend.

Kitty swam towards her and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. "You don't have to stay here another minute, Jubilee. Come on, I'm getting you out of here. You're lips are like totally blue, you know."

"Hey, what about us?" Jamie cried, waving a hand wildly at Kitty. Suddenly three more Jamie incarnations appeared, giving Kitty four very disappointed looks.

"Now Jamie, be thankful Kitty risked her own skin to come here. She'll take Jubilee first because Jubilee has been in the water for a longer amount of time than you have. I don't want her getting sick," Ororo said and without further comment, Jamie shut his mouth and slumped against the garage wall. Roberto and Rahne patted him on the back for effort.

Jubilee hooked hands with Kitty, standing just inches away from the garage wall. With a last wave to the small group, she and Kitty phased out onto the other side. Once there, Jubilee called for Jean to get her and Kitty went back inside the enclosed space where the rest of her teammates were trapped. Jean raised Jubilee with her telekinesis and safely dropped her off with Kurt, Bobby, Hank and Logan, who all stood on the edge of pool, grim expressions on their faces.

"I'm going back. Kitty's coming out with Roberto." Jean said and with a leap, she was high in the air, her red hair gleaming in the sun, her green eyes full of determination and power. To Logan, Jean resembled a phoenix at that moment, flying in the air as if she had suddenly sprouted wings, with that long mane of fiery red hair. Logan held a strange kind of respect towards Jean, ever since the incident when her growing powers had gone completely out of control. He realized that now Jean had to maintain the utmost control over her mutant abilities and that if she ever lost that control, havoc would occur.

A minute later, Jean arrived with Roberto, who looked unusually disappointed. He sat down on the ground, his eyes narrowed in anger or frustration, Logan couldn't decipher, and his mouth was set in a firm line.

"Aren't you glad half pint fished you out of that hell-hole? You don't look very happy to me, kid, and someone just gave you a second chance to make a difference in this world." Logan said, his arms folded squarely across his chest.

"I wouldn't need that second chance if Storm had only let me use my power to free us all. Instead, Jean and Kitty have to help us out... and we could all be already safe if I only had used my mutant power." Roberto said, staring back at Logan with a hard stare of his own. For some reason, the man had never scared him, although he knew the other mutants had always maintained a safe distance from Logan.

"Did it ever occur to you that you're mutant power wasn't the answer to this situation? Kid, the whole area was blocked. There was a few rays of sunlight coming through and as far as I know, that ain't enough fuel for your almighty power." Logan replied and with a shake of his head, moved away from Roberto before the urge to throttle the kid overwhelmed him.

Twenty minutes later, Kurt had teleported everyone into the Danger Room, the safest place under the circumstances. Kitty had gone after Rahne and Ororo, and had safely guided them through the garage wall and then Jean had taken over from there, using her telekinesis to take Rahne to land. Ororo had kicked up a mighty wind and had blown the heavy, water lodged garage wall right onto the lawn, and then had flown back to the group. Then finally Kurt had started teleporting, taking three people with him on each trip until everyone was inside the sturdy walls of the Danger Room.

"So what's going to happen to us?" Linda asked Scott, who had settled down beside her on the blanket she had spread out across the floor. There had been no residual effects of Rogue's powers, as far as the Professor could tell, and both girls felt physically fit, as they before the skin to skin contact. Linda felt like herself almost instantly, and conversing with Scott just proved it. She had seen him stagger into the Danger Room with two others boys, Ray and Sam, while Jean had been called outside to the pool in an apparent rescuing mission. Knowing that she probably wouldn't have another chance to privately spend some time with Scott for a while, because the earthquake was keeping them inside the Danger Room, Linda had called Scott over.

"We're going to stay here for at least another day, the Professor says. Logan and Hank assessed the damage upstairs and they say it isn't completely bad. A lot of things are broken but it's still livable. I'm definitely ready to go back to my room." Scott said, giving her an easy, fully charming smile.

Linda felt like melted butter when she saw him smiling at her. He was just so handsome, so sweet... unlike any other guy, or boyfriend she'd ever had. Just sitting next to him, talking, even in this unpleasant situation, Linda felt at ease. She was glad that somehow, in someway, Jean had lost her chance with Scott. Well, maybe not completely lost it, but Jean was currently unavailable, as Kitty had told her, because of a certain high school jock for a boyfriend.

"Yeah, sleeping here will be a new experience. I wish we could go back to our rooms already. I mean, I only arrived today, but everything looks so cool and high-tech around here. And my room has a stereo in it, with high surround sound and the Professor even gave me my own laptop!" Linda exclaimed with excitement, her green eyes lighting up.

Scott felt entranced as he watched her speak, her dark brown hair falling across her shoulders in a smooth sweep, her eyes focused completely on him... the way her mouth moved... all of it made him feel like he had felt for Jean. All he could suddenly think of was kissing Linda soundly and wrapping his arms around her slender form. Scott knew, already, that he had a crush on Linda. He just didn't know where his passionate feelings for Jean had gone. He had liked Jean far longer than Linda, but now, nothing in him stirred when he thought of the redheaded girl.

"Yeah, the Professor is a great guy." Scott said, regaining his voice, although his covered eyes never left Linda's face.

"I'm glad we have a lot in common, Scott. Very glad. I think you and I are going to become great friends." she said, reaching over to grasp his hand in hers. It was like an electrical shot. Sparks raced up their arms when they touched and Scott tightened his hold.

"I guess we have a magical connection, eh?"

"Most definitely, Scott Summers." Linda answered back and then, acting completely on instinct, she leaned in and gave him a long, slow, full of meaning kiss. He didn't pull away and instead, acting on his own desire, wrapped an arm around her waist as he kissed her back.

Thankfully, they were sitting in a secluded section of the Danger Room, covered by shadows, where none of the bright lights could reach them. They continued kissing, suddenly desperate for more contact, more of each other. It was very early in their relationship, but they had clicked since the moment that they had met, and had subconsciously wanted to kiss each other since that very moment.

A moment later, they separated, needing air, and gave each other huge grins.

"I've been wanting to do that ever since I saw you, Scott Summers. I'm glad we didn't waste much time," Linda said, leaning seductively towards him.

"Me too... Linda Goldstein." Scott said and gave her a lightening quick kiss for effect. He felt like he was walking on a cloud.

Although Linda didn't want to break their happy mood, she knew the question of Jean would come up between them anyway. "So... I hope you don't get mad, but Kitty told me that you and Jean Grey were close... close enough for a relationship. I just want to know now... and before you say anything, I'm not meaning to pry, Scott. I just really, really like you."

At the mention of Jean's name, Scott expected to feel guilty. But nothing happened. All he saw was her face, smiling at him, and nothing else. No guilty feelings over kissing Linda, no guilty feelings about his crush being seemingly over Jean. All he felt was a closeness to Jean, a brother sister kind of bond. And Scott was happy, because next to him was the girl he wanted, a beautiful stranger that had come into his life and turned it around. He'd had enough of chasing after Jean, seeing her with Duncan, and pining away for her and having nothing good come out of it.

"Listen, Linda. The only girl I like is you. Right now, right here. Me and Jean are close, yes, but in a family kind of way. She's my sister, I'm her brother. What Kitty told you could have happened but it didn't. Jean has Duncan and I have you. And I'm happy," Scott said, drawing Linda closer until her faces was inches away from his.

She blinked her eyes, her heart soaring. Scott Summers wanted her... and not Jean. Linda gave him another kiss, smiling into his mouth. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"I thought you would be," Scott said, laughing. They stood up, rushing their pants off, and then Linda started folding the blanket. "Well... maybe later we can get together... because right now everything is crazy, you know. As the leader of the X-Men I have a lot of responsibilities and the Professor will be counting on me to help him out."

"I understand, Scott. You don't have to explain everything to me. I'll be waiting okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks... I really appreciate this, you knowing what I'm going through." Scott said, sighing in relief, elated to hear the words from her.

"One more thing," Linda paused and then after he nodded, continued, "I don't know if we should do this... but when we start dating, we should tell the other guys, as well as Jean. I don't want her to run in on us in school and see us kissing or something. I know what that feels like, Scott, and it's not a pleasant feeling. If she knew about it beforehand, it'll prepare her."

"Okay, we'll call everyone into my room over the weekend and tell them, okay? All I hope is that Jean doesn't take this too personally. She shouldn't do it anyway. She has Duncan." Scott said, getting a little frustrated. It always bugged him the way Jean seemed to know of his crush on her, yet didn't directly acknowledge it, and always flirted with Duncan whenever Scott was around. It bugged Scott like crazy.

"Well she can't throw a fit with everyone there. It'll be fine, Scott, don't worry. Now, I'm going to go look for Kitty. I think she disappeared with that blue boy, Kurt."

Scott nodded, deep in thought, as his new girlfriend walked away to find one of her friends. Linda seemed like a blessing, an angel that had lifted him with her wings. It had been so long since he'd dated, ever since the brief relationship with one of Jean's closest friends, Taryn. Now, finally, he had a beautiful girl that was interested in him... Scott felt unbelievably happy, and with that thought in his mind, went off to find either Kurt or the Professor.

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