Worse Than They'd Imagined

They made it successfully to the garage the next morning without being caught and were hopeful that their luck would hold until they made it to school where the others wouldn't dare say anything about the tape.

Jean's heart plummeted when they actually entered the garage and saw Rogue leaning comfortably against the hood of Scott's car.

Her stomach joined her heart on the floor and she nearly fainted to add her entire body to the pile when she saw the black unmarked videocassette in the other girl's gloved hands.

Rogue shifted against the car at their entrance and smiled wickedly at them as they stood frozen in the doorway.

Seeing their attention focused solely on the tape in her hands, she casually began tossing it from hand to hand.

She feigned dropping it and the couple nearly dove forward to snatch it away from her.

Laughing she whipped of her gloves and clutched it tightly in her dangerously bare hands.

"So, you two like whipped cream? Never woulda thought ya to be inta getting' that messy, Jean," her lips quirked upward, "But then Scott was nice enough to clean it all up without delay."

"What do you want?"

Ahhh, Scott was finally catching on to the fact that Rogue held all the cards and intended to play every one to her benefit.

"Whatever do you mean, Scott?"

"The tape, Rogue. What do you want for it?!"

"What's it worth to ya?"

"Forget this, Scott, it would be like negotiating with a terrorist! I'll handle this," finally snapping out of her shocked daze, Jean focused on trying to lift the video from Rogue's hands with her mind.

~~Oh, no, you don't, Ms Perfection. Don't make me use your owns powers against you, now.~~

Cringing at the threat spoken quite softly into her mind, Jean gave up and accepted that they'd have to give the girl whatever she wanted to get the tape back.

"Rogue, come on. We're friends, aren't we? Do you really want that to get out for everyone to see? What do you think Jean or I would do if the situation were reversed?"

Glaring at Scott for that low blow, Rogue tried to recapture the wicked glee she'd felt just moments ago at having such power over them.

That was the best and worst part of being part of a team.

Each team member cared about the other and vice versa.

Except for Evan, obviously.

But unlike the young boy, Rogue was ultimately loyal and actually liked these guys.

"Alright, here," she sighed and offered the tape to Scott.

He grabbed the plastic rectangle eagerly, as if afraid she'd change her mind.

"Thank you, Rogue, I knew you'd do the right thing. This is the only one right?"

"It's the only copy I made, but the original was floating around for a few days," she admitted with a cringe.

"You made a copy?!"

Both Rogue and Scott cringed at how Jean's shrill question echoed in the garage.

"Ah had to. Kitty needed to get the original back to Evan's room before he knew it was missing and everyone wanted to see it again."

Rogue was ready to throw herself in front of a fast moving train when she realized what she'd just admitted.

"EVERYONE?!"

"Um….Amara, Kitty, Rahne, Tabitha and I watched it in my room. The guys…kind of…paid Evan to watch it in his."

"I told you to kill him," Jean turned furiously on Scott at that last piece of information.

"Don't worry, he's dead now, babe," Scott replied coldly, clenching his hands into fists.

~*~*~

He ran to hide under tables that were instantly overturned.

He ran into rooms and blocked the doors shut behind him only to have them blasted off their hinges.

Evan knew it was cowardly and he'd never live it down, but he needed help fast and did the only thing he could think of.

"Auntie O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The weather Goddess quickly responded to his scream, sensing something very serious to be wrong for him to make such a fuss.

He ran to hide behind her the second she entered the fray and Ororo couldn't for the life of her imagine why he was reacting that way to Jean and Scott.

Then she noticed the path of destruction the lay behind the couple that stood tensely waiting to get their hands on her nephew.

"What is going on here?"

"Ororo, I know he's family and you love him, but step aside," Scott asked, hand poised at his visor ready to fire a blast.

Ororo was stunned to realize he'd be aiming that blast at Evan!

"I will not! I demand to know what is going on here and I demand to know it now!"

"Ask the little coward behind you, Storm," Jean asked pure fury lighting her eyes as she looked in Evan's direction.

Not daring to turn her back on the furious pair, she asked over her shoulder, "Evan?"

When his only answer was to huddle deeper into the shelter of her back, Ororo knew this was big and called for the Professor.

~*~*~

Logan strode into the tense situation moments before the Professor wheeled himself in.

Taking in the destruction around them with an arched black grow, Logan was glad the wreckage wasn't his fault for once.

On one side of the room stood Jean and Scott, both in uniform and waiting for a single move to allow them access to Evan.

Evan was planted firmly behind Ororo on the other side of the room.

Logan and the Professor were placed solidly in the middle.

"Scott, Jean, I expected the two of you to handle this more maturely," the Professor was saying.

"What's the mature way to deal with the little jerk who's filmed you having sex then charged admission to let fellow minors watch the tape?!"

Oh-ho, Logan thought at Scott's tense response to the Professor's words.

The plot thickens.

The Professor was a bit shocked by Scott's revelation and took a moment to regain his composure.

Logan noticed that Ororo had moved slightly away from Evan to quietly demand if what Scott said was true.

Busted, Porcupine!

"Evan, is that true?" the Professor demanded as well.

The boy nodded and was abandoned by his aunt.

"You filmed Jean and Scott having sex?!"

Logan wondered absently where he could dig a copy up to show the woman while cursing his lack of thought to make his own copy.

"Evan, you will return the money you collected to it's original owners immediately and hand over your camera as well. You obviously are not suited for such a device."

Logan seconded the second part of the order the Professor gave the kid.

"Jean, Scott, you will not harm Evan or anyone else under this roof. I do not care the provocation, I will put you out of this institute at once if you ever do so, do I make myself clear?"

Still tensely furious, the teenagers nodded their acceptance of the rule.

Logan could sense that they were beginning to think of many things to do to the boy that came just shy of harming him.

With a smile, he thought he might even help them carry of few of those plans out if needed.

"Stop those thoughts right now, all of you. I will not have any more damage done to my home over this incident. Jean, Scott, you are leaders here. You exemplify everything I try to do for students at this institute and until today I thought you set marvelous examples. Do you mean to prove me wrong now?"

Ooooh, playing on the reputations the kids prized so highly, good one Chuck.

Unfortunately for Logan who'd been looking forward to some major action here, the Professor's words did the trick to calm the older X-Men down.

The couple trudged slowly from the room, simply nodding in acceptance of the Professor's statement that they would pay for repairing all the damage they'd done.

~*~*~

They honestly thought it couldn't get any worse.

They thought having everyone at the institute know about their sexcapades was as bad as it could get.

Then they found out what had happened to the original copy.

A terrified Kitty felt compelled to confess to them how she had accidentally kind of like mentioned the tape to Lance who'd gotten Toad to sneak over and get it. She swore that the Blob had destroyed the tape forever though.

After the Brotherhoods had seen it.

The information made Jean wonder if it was too late in her senior year to transfer to some nice isolated school in Alaska.

They didn't know any mutants in Alaska did they?