Chapter 9: Sabretooth

"Jubilee." Jean tapped on the closed door.

There was no answer.

"Jubilee!"

Still no answer.

Jean sighed. Since that night several weeks ago when She and Scott had caught Remy, Jubilee, and Logan sneaking back in from Crossroads, Jubilee hadn't spoken a word to her, Scott, or Ororo. She'd hung out with Remy and Bobby, of all people. Both men were plainly interested in her, but she'd had her heart full of only one man; Logan.

Of whom there had been no sign. Jubilee had obviously checked under his bed just as Jean had, and discovered the same thing; his traveling bag was gone. Jean had heard her stomping off down the hall to her room, muttering something about how she was going to yell at him when he got back. Jean was relieved when she made no move to go haring off after him. Instead she'd buried herself down in the lab with Hank, and had published another paper in some obscure scientific journal. When Scott had tried to question her about it, in hopes of breaking down the wall she'd put up between the three of them and herself, he'd been rebuffed with a cold stare and continued silence. After weeks of this, Jean was ready to do just about anything to break that silence. Hence, she was here, making a last-ditch effort to speak to the girl before she and Remy departed on the long three-hour trip upstate to her colleague's wedding.

"Jubilee!" another knock, this time a more forceful one. Jean sighed, closed her eyes, and reached out a mental thread to the younger woman. Jubilee, you can't keep ignoring me like this. Jubilee, can you hear me?

* * *

Jubilee pulled the side of her bangs into an elegant French twist and pinned it. Then she picked up the flowered comb and carefully set it into the twist, grimacing. She could hear Jean fine; she just didn't choose to answer it. She heard footsteps coming down the hall…Scott. He had been coming to her room at odd times over the last couple of weeks too, doing the same thing Jean was doing; knocking, calling, and waiting for an answer. The last time he'd done that, he'd also called through the door that he wasn't going to leave until he spoke to her. She'd smiled to herself, opened her window quietly, and slipped out onto the tree limb she'd used to climb out of her room when she was younger. Remy saw her shimmying down the tree, and gave her a puzzled look. "Scott," she'd said, and he'd nodded, and guided her into the back door.

He had refused to tell her what had been said in the kitchen after she'd left that night. No matter how she bugged him, pestered him, and badgered him, he refused to say a word. "Lot o' what was said was said to Logan, p'tite," he'd said seriously when she'd gotten through swearing and cussing at him. "He should tell you if he wants to, not me." But Logan hadn't been around to ask.

The only thing that kept her from going off to find him when his absence had extended past the first week was a short Email he'd sent her. I'm fine. Got to think about things. Logan. After that, he'd sent another one every few days, letting her know he was fine. It was the same every time…except the last one he'd sent her, just this morning. Talk to you when I get back. Am starting out now. Love, Logan.

That single word 'love' had sent her into ecstasies. He never said that unless he really meant it. Maybe he'd changed his mind! She had started to get ready for the trip and the wedding with a lighter heart.

Now Scott and Jean were out there trying to ruin it. She pressed her lips into a thin line as she set the other comb into her hair. Whatever they'd said that had made him run off like that without saying goodbye to her must have been bad, because he'd never left without telling her where he was going. Never. Even when she'd been at the Massachusetts Academy he'd always told her where he was going and told her goodbye. No matter how mad he got at her he'd always said goodbye.

She looked at herself critically in the mirror as Jean and Scott got suspiciously quiet out there in the hall. The combs had tiny crimson roses and bright green leaves that showed of nicely against her hair, which she'd gone to the trouble of curling earlier that morning. She patted her clear complexion with a bit of powder, trying to hide the tiny freckle she'd acquired that summer tanning by the pool. It would fade as the winter went on; but for now, it was a tiny brown dot on her cheek.

Now for the rest of the makeup. Mascara on her lashes, dark eyeliner on her upper lid, and a tiny dot of the stuff on the outer corner of each eye. She'd read that it would make her almond-shaped eyes look bigger. To her surprise, it had worked. Now she used it all the time. She applied a coat of lipstick in a color called velvet wine; it was a beautiful color. It made her face look like porcelain and her lips full and sensuous. She tucked the lipstick into her tiny red velvet purse and was slipping on her black dress jacket when the door flew open. She whirled.

Jean and Scott had opened her door. She growled. "Get out," she snapped.

Jean froze. This lovely young woman with flashing blue eyes and beautiful gown was their Jubilee? On an everyday basis, except for the woman's curves and taller stature, she looked so much like the fourteen-year old they remembered that it was hard to see the grown woman she'd become. In the months that she'd been home, they'd slipped back into the old habit of talking to her as they used to… "Jubilee, could you take this to the kitchen, please, dear?" "Jubilee, could you run upstairs and ask Bobby to come down here, please?" It was stuff they wouldn't have said to Storm, or any of the older residents of the mansion that they considered an adult. So why had they been doing it to her? She certainly was an adult. Jan shook her head as she stared at Jubilee. They had no right telling her, or Logan, what to do.

Scott froze in the door, similar thoughts running through his head. They left him shaking his head bemusedly, and what he planned to say went out the window. "Jubilee," he started, then stopped. "Uh, what I want to say is…well…Jubilee, I'm sorry. We didn't have a right to stick our noses into your business that night. If you want to go to Crossroads, it's your prerogative. At least you took Logan with you in case a fight broke out." He stopped, at a loss for words.

Jean spoke. "I'm sorry for all the stuff we said to Logan and Remy about that night. I'm sorry I treated you like a child. I guess…I didn't see you as an adult, I still saw you as a child. And I'm afraid we hurt your feelings. I'm sorry, Jubilee."

Jubilee remained facing the mirror, but Jean and Scott both saw the stiffness of her back relax slightly. "At least you apologized," she said tartly. "Now tell me something; what did you say to Logan to make him ditch me and leave me like that?"

Scott ran a hand through his hair, managing to look sheepish even under his glasses. "I told him if he had any sense he'd let you go to find someone else. I told him he didn't want to look into your eyes ten or twenty years from now and see regret there because you passed up the chance for a normal life because you thought you were in love with him."

Jubilee turned on him, and her cheeks were red with anger. "What the hell were you thinking when you said that?" she demanded, stepping up to him. "I told Logan the same thing I'm going to tell you; I don't want normal. I don't want a normal husband in a normal house with normal kids and a normal dog. If I wanted normal I would have accepted the first marriage proposal I got from that stupid popinjay I met at the Helsinki conference and moved to Rotterdam with him! I don't want normal, I want Logan!

"All I've ever wanted since I was fifteen was to join the X-Men and be one of you, really one of you. Not a tagalong that got in your way when you went out on missions, not a hindrance or someone who needed to be babysat, but really one of you. It was always 'Jubilee, stay here' or 'Jubilee, not this time you'll be hurt.' You know why I always ran off to follow Logan? Because he never brushed me aside, he never treated me like I was in the way, he never brushed me off. He treated me as an equal, as an adult. And in his way, he needed me too."

She took a deep breath, tried to calm down as she put on her jewelry. "I love him. I love him more than anyone I've ever known. He tried to tell me that I didn't want a life as one of the X-Men; he tried to tell me I wasn't cut out for this kind of life, that I deserved more. And I told him that if I die tomorrow as an X-Man, I'd die not regretting a single thing. Anything could happen to any one of us at any time. We're not infallible, we're…well, most of anyway…aren't immortal. I know a lot of the other women he's loved have died, and that tears him up, thinking I might become one of them.

"But at least I'll have had him for however much time we both have, and at least I know the dangers; I'm accepting them with my eyes wide open. If I can accept them, then I can accept the dangers and trials and pains of being an X-Man. And I'm not exactly helpless. I can defend myself, I can handle myself, but having him next to me will even the odds. Whether I'm with him or not, I'm still going to be in danger, so I might as well have a bodyguard, huh?" she slipped her last earring in place, and turned to them, her eyes serious but no longer angry. "He sent me an Email this morning saying he's on his way home, and we have to talk. I agree; and I don't want anyone putting their two cents in while we do, or even after we do." She adjusted her jacket and turned, looking at all angles of her dress in the mirror. "Now. Jean, how do I look?"

Jean hugged her. "You look beautiful. They'll kick you out of the chapel for being more beautiful than the bride," she said. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, a certain Cajun is waiting for you out in the garage, so you'd better hurry."

Jubilee kissed Jean quickly, and said. "I'm sorry for the cold shoulder. I was just so angry…"

Scott patted her shoulder. "We're sorry for getting involved where we shouldn't. I hope you and Logan patch things up, because I can't stand another few weeks like the ones we've just gone through."

Jubilee smiled at him and grinned, then whisked off down the stairs and out the door to the garage.

* * *

Remy saw Jubilee coming, and readied his camera. As soon as she stepped into the brightly lit garage, he whipped it out, yelled, "Smile, p'tite!" and clicked the button. He lowered the camera to see her laughing face. "For Logan," he said, grinning rakishly. "He gon' be sorry he miss dis. You look beautiful, chere."

"Thanks, Remy," she grinned as she slipped into the front seat of the car. "Wow. How'd you manage to talk Charles into letting us take the Mercedes?"

Remy grinned as he slid into the driver's seat. "Remy t'ought de p'tite should impress her colleagues wit' a flashy entrance," he said.

As they started the drive upstate, Jubilee remembered something she'd forgotten in all the fuss and hubbub. "So how was your date with Elise?"

Remy grinned wider. "It was great," he said. "Remy took de ticket she give me an' wen' to de ballet. Jubilee, she de mos' beautiful dancer I've seen. She keep sayin' she was only a member of de corps de ballet, but she was de bes' one dere. I wonder why dey don' give her a bigger role."

"Was she the best one because you've got a thing for her, or do you have a thing for her because you think she's the best one?" Jubilee teased him, and laughed as he hemmed and tried to find excuses.

They stopped halfway there for them both to stretch their legs and fill up on gas, and Remy ran into the gas station and came out with two bottles of soda. Jubilee drank, looked at the lip of the bottle, and grimaced. "Shouldn't have put lipstick on until I got there," she said glumly.

Remy laughed at her vanity and they kept driving.

She was awfully glad when they arrived at their destination at almost five o'clock. She had called the Professor a few days before, and he had told her to come a little early. There would be refreshments served first, then they would walk to the church, which was conveniently located right across the road, then there would be a short walk back.

Jubilee was impressed with the sight of the 'vacation house' when the Mercedes pulled up. It was an impressive two-story affair, not nearly as big as the Professor's mansion, but still with fair-sized rooms. She entered, and smiling butler waited to take her coat. She handed it to him, inquired her way to the bathroom, and quickly touched up her makeup and refreshed herself before venturing out again.

Remy met her in the foyer, and were greeted by Professor Cohen and Claudia. Jubilee made kissing motions in her direction as the two men laughed. "Oh, Jubilee, I'm so glad you could make it," Claudia said. "Can you do me a favor? Keep Matthew occupied while I get dressed? It's supposed to be bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the ceremony, and I don't want to jinx the whole thing!"

Jubilee laughingly agreed, and Claudia bustled off. Professor Cohen was distracted just then by another group of guests arriving, so she took Remy's arm and they wandered off to the large living room, where he snagged two glasses of champagne and handed her one as he sipped the other. Jubilee shook her head as his eye was caught almost immediately by a pretty blonde and he changed his course to intercept hers. As she sat on an easy chair and sipped her glass, Professor Cohen came up behind her. "Shouldn't you go catch your man?" he asked her.

Jubilee giggled. "He's not my boyfriend, he's just a close friend," she said. " My 'young man' as you call him, couldn't make it today, so I brought him instead."

"Quite the life of the party, isn't he," Professor Cohen chuckled. Remy was now surrounded by no less than four giggling young girls, and flirting as hard as he could with all of them. "So how have you been doing, my dear?"

Jubilee smiled. "Doing okay," she said. "I just published my new paper in Physics Today. Have you gotten a chance to read it yet?"

"I'm afraid not," he said. "With all the fuss made about the wedding, all the preparing and everything, I didn't have a chance. I'll certainly check after all the fuss dies down, though. What was it called, and which issue of the journal did you publish it in?"

They were deeply engrossed in their conversation when a woman appeared at the top of the stairs. "The bride is now ready, and the ceremony will begin momentarily," she said. "Will all guests please begin to move out to the church?"

Jubilee made a move to collect her coat, but decided against it, as the church was right across the street, and simply pulled her red scarf around her shoulders and walked with Remy to the church.

The ceremony was simple but sweet, and Jubilee joined in the applause and congratulations as the newly-married couple ran from the church and led the bridal procession back across the street. By then, it was getting dark, and the early October chill was setting in. She was glad, then, when they all walked back into the welcome warmth of the house. Most of the guests headed immediately for the buffet table, which was spread with a feast of delicious-smelling food. Remy was drawn away almost immediately again by the giggly blonde, and Jubilee waited until she saw that the crowd by the tables had dissipated before she went over.

She picked up a plate and looked down the table. She chose a helping of a delicious-looking chicken and rice dish, then a couple of slices of a juicy, pink-centered roast, some salad with a zesty Italian dressing, and a buttered roll, and went to find a seat. Everything seemed to be taken, and the only one she could see was a low ottoman in front of the open back door. She shrugged. The heat in here was stifling, anyway. She sat down and bit into her roll.

She was hungrier than she realized, and the food on her plate disappeared with startling rapidity. She was about to get up and go for a refill when the screen exploded inward and a familiar snarling, feral looking behemoth crouched just inside the room.

Sabretooth!

Jubilee dropped her plate, barely heard it shatter on the floor as guests began running and screaming. He wasn't looking at them however; he was looking right at her. "It's da runt's li'l firecracker," he said, grinning unpleasantly. "I smelled ya when you an' da Cajun boy pulled up. Yer all grown up now, ain'tcha?" He advanced on her. "So where's da runt? I don't smell him. If you're here by yerself, maybe I ought ta keep an eye on ya till he shows up, huh?"

Jubilee tensed. "Stay away from me," she said, backing up warily. Her eyes began to sparkle with the buildup of energy inside her preparatory to using her power. "Get lost, Sabretooth." She felt, more than heard, the frightened huddle of wedding guests in the doorway behind her. Where was Remy? She vaguely remembered seeing him wandering off into the other room with one of the giggling girls, but she couldn't see him now, and she couldn't spare the attention to find him. Her senses were focused on the man before her.

Sabretooth made a grab for her, and she gave up trying to avoid using her power. She had to protect these people; she couldn't worry about her cover. Her hands began to glitter with the multicolored pyrotechnics of her power.

"Give it up, girlie," Sabretooth snapped, making another grab for her. She danced aside, then opened her palms and let loose a stream of colored atoms that exploded on impact with his body, knocking him back out into the patio.

He lunged for her, snarling, and she sent another stream of atomic energy toward him as she backed away. Her heel caught on the edge of her gown, and she tripped and fell backward.

Sabretooth was on her now, and she was fighting him with everything she had. When she had gone off to college, Logan had taken her aside and showed her how to fend off an attack by a heavier, larger male in case she went to the wrong party. She'd never had the chance to use it then, but she thanked him in her head silently now as she bit Sabretooth's arm and gouged a chunk out with her nails. Her flailing hands raked his face, causing him to howl with pain. His claws came out, and swiped her almost casually across her cheek, and she cried out as three slashes opened up under her cheekbone. One went all the way across the bridge of her nose, and two more gashes marked the side of her neck. He grabbed her throat, jerked her head up to his, and smashed her pale forehead into his. She went momentarily limp, dazed from the impact of her head on his skull, and that was enough.

He whipped a slender band of metal from the pocket of his heavy jacket, and snapped it around her neck. Jubilee remembered the thing; it was one of those blasted collars that somehow suppressed her powers. She felt cut off from them, suddenly, and it was disorienting. Well, she might not have her powers, but she could still try to fight him until Remy could reach her through the thick crowd of people clustered in the door. She could already hear his voice; she just had to delay Sabretooth until Remy could reach her.

Her knee came up, hard, between his, and Sabretooth howled. Jubilee grinned grimly to herself and bashed her fist into his face, breaking his nose. Her next move was to bring her hand up, and she dug her knuckles into his eyes. He howled again, and slapped her with one massive hand. She saw stars as her head smacked the floor.

Remy pushed his way past the final knot of onlookers, Professor Cohen right behind him, and his heart almost stopped as he saw Sabretooth on top of Jubilee on the floor. She was fighting him, and apparently hurting him badly, judging by the howls of pain and outrage. He wondered for a moment why she wasn't using her power, then saw the narrow band of power-suppressing metal fastened about her neck. "Sabretooth!" he shouted, distracting the feral mutant from the girl on the floor, "Pick on somebody your own size, homme!" He seized the deck of cards he'd dropped into his suit pocket on a whim that morning and charged one up, flinging it at Sabretooth.

The blast! when it struck caught Sabretooth and flung him clear of Jubilee. She scrambled to her feet, tried to run. Sabretooth roared, flung himself at her in a flying tackle slightly reminiscent of a football defensive lineman, and Remy heard the sound of ripping cloth and Jubilee's scream. Sabretooth had caught her legs under the dress, and by some unlucky chance had deeply gashed her thigh. She screamed, went down, and he was on her in a minute, catching her up in his arms and throwing her over his shoulder. Then he was gone, loping off into the night, carrying Jubilee.