Chapter 4: Flight
"Got everything?" Jubilee grinned cheerfully at Logan as she tucked clothes into her suitcase.
Logan grunted back at her, busy trying to figure out if he did indeed have everything. She had said they would be there a week; he was taking along enough changes of clothes for the week, and a couple pairs of shoes.
Jubilee closed her suitcase and came to peek over his shoulder at the small pile of clothes in the suitcase. "You forgot to pack a suit," she said.
"A suit?" he growled. "What for?"
"We're going to a conference," she said patiently. "There's usually a formal affair on the last night of a conference, and guests and speakers are all expected to dress."
Logan groaned. "Jubes, I ain't got a blasted suit," he said, exasperated. "An' where'm I gonna find one this late? You should'a told me earlier!"
She giggled, grinned. "Way ahead of you, darling," she said. From the back of her closet she pulled out a black garment bag and handed it to him.
He glared at it suspiciously, and Jubilee giggled again. "Logan, it's not going to bite you," she snickered. "Open it and see what it looks like!"
He yanked at the tiny zipper and unzipped it. Inside was a basic black suit pant and jacket, and two crisp, clean, starched white shirt. There were also two ties draped around the collar of the shirts. "Uh-uh," he said firmly.
"'Uh-uh' what?" she said, hands on her hips.
"I ain't wearin' a tie, Jubes. No way. Sorry darlin'." He grabbed for the ties and pulled them off the hanger.
Jubilee scooped the ties off their bedroom floor and dusted them off, holding them back out to him. "Logan, it's a formal affair. You have to."
He crossed his arms stubbornly and looked at the ceiling.
"Logan, come on," she said, her voice changing to a wheedling, coaxing tone. "Look, it's just the one night! I chose two of them because I didn't know which one you'd like. Come on, just pick one and let's finish packing."
He shook his head again. "I ain't wearin' a tie."
"Logan, they match my dress! Please, just this once!" she pleaded. "Everyone else will be wearing one, even Hank and Charles." He still shook his head.
"Why?" she asked. "Why won't you wear it?"
"I hate ties," he growled. "They're too damn uncomfortable, and its too easy fer someone ta grab ya and strangle ya while yer wearin' one."
Jubilee laughed at him. "Logan, you have claws. If someone's stupid enough to try to strangle you with your tie, you can always cut it." She turned and rummaged in her closet again, coming out with another garment bag. She draped it on the bed and opened it, pulling out a sapphire gown. "You think this thing's easy to wear?" she asked, holding it up in front of him.
He stared at it. It was a gorgeous creation of blue satin and sequins that would hug her curves and accent her small, full bust. "Easy on the eyes, darlin'," he said.
Jubilee made a face. "The cloth hugs my waist a bit tight," she said, "And I have to pad the top of the dress because I haven't got the breasts to fill it out properly. The sequins scratch my arms. And the shoes hurt my feet and give me blisters."
"So why wear it?" he said. "Why not find somethin' else ta wear that's more comf'rtable?"
"Because you think it's beautiful," she said softly. "You saw a photograph of me in the dress once and then you couldn't stop staring at it. I had it cleaned just for this occasion, because you liked it. So if I can be uncomfortable in this dress for four hours, then you can be uncomfortable in a tie for the same amount of time."
He almost relented. Almost.
Jubilee flung the dress on the bed and began to pout. He glared. She pouted some more. He glared some more.
Ororo and Xavier paused in front of their room door, looking with thinly-disguised amusement at the two silent figures. "What is wrong?" Ororo finally asked.
"Jubilee's makin' me--" Logan began.
"Logan's stubborn ass won't--" Jubilee spoke at the same time.
"Wear that damn tie!" they both finished.
Xavier turned his face aside, hiding a cough behind his hand that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. He quickly composed himself when he saw the two of them glaring at him. Logan's grim look suggested that if Xavier so much as smirked, he was going to lose his temper. "Logan, it is a formal affair," he said gently. "Ties are usually required, and it will certainly look odd if you don't wear one. If you insist on coming--" and Logan looked murderously at him, as if daring him to go any further, and Xavier bit off the rest of his words, finishing with, "The least you could do is dress appropriately. After all, you don't want people to look oddly at Jubilee because her escort to the affair is not appropriately dressed."
Logan still looked rebellious, and Ororo hastened to intercede. "Logan, Jubilee, if I may make a suggestion," she said. Two pairs of eyes turned toward her. "The last formal affair we had here--I believe it was last Christmas--you wore a bolo tie with a decorative silver clasp," she said to Logan. "Perhaps you could wear that with the suit instead of a traditional tie. It might serve the purpose."
Jubilee rummaged around in one of Logan's drawers, and came up with the tie. "Try it on," she urged him, pushing the tie and the suit at him and shoving him toward the bathroom door. "And hurry! We're going to miss our flight if we don't hurry!" she rolled her eyes in exasperation at him as the bathroom door slammed. She turned her attention to the dress on the bed, tucking it back into the garment bag and zipping it up.
The bathroom door opened, and Logan came out, fussing with the starched collar of the shirt. He hadn't bothered putting on the pants. Jubilee looked critically at the bolo tie and the jacket, and then said, "'Ro, you're a genius. It's not as good as a traditional tie, but it'll pass muster."
Logan breathed a huge sigh of relief, and took off the jacket, shirt, and tie. "Fine. At least I don't haveta wear the blasted thing," he snorted as he stuffed the jacket and shirt back into the garment bag. Jubilee yelped. "Now what?" he sighed as he looked back at her.
"You have to hang it, Logan, or it'll wrinkle--" she trailed off as she settled the suit shirt and jacket neatly back on its hanger and zipped up the bag. She slung it over her arm with an annoyed whuff and stalked out of the room carrying both bags out to the van.
Xavier sighed. "I am not used to taking commuter flights," he said to Ororo wistfully as she took one of the suitcases and Logan took the other. "There is no chance that my private plane is fixed, is there?"
Ororo shook her head. It had been several months since Xavier had needed his private jet, and when he had called yesterday he found that it had needed repairs and had been grounded. There had been a last-minute scramble to obtain seats on the Air Bruxelles Flight 103 going to Belgium. As a result, they were now rushing to catch the flight.
Scott and Jean had already put Xavier's and Hank's bags in the van. Scott was going to drive the four of them to the airport, and Jubilee and Logan would push Xavier's wheelchair out to the plane. If they had been taking his plane he wouldn't have had to leave his hoverchair behind, and it would have been easier to move about, but they were all quite sure the passengers on a commuter flight wouldn't react well to seeing a floating wheelchair on the plane!
* * *
Jubilee stowed the bags in the overhead compartment and sat down as Hank (wearing his image inducer) and Logan got Xavier's wheelchair strapped down to the floor of the plane. Xavier himself sat comfortably in one of the seats, securely strapped in. Jubilee popped a stick of gum in her mouth and began to chew as the plane taxied into position on the runway for takeoff.
Once they were in the air and on the way Jubilee settled back and opened her briefcase, which she'd insisted on carrying herself. Logan shook his head. It was a change, seeing her haul around a big briefcase. Hank looked across at what she was working on, and she handed him the papers. "They're my notes for the speech," she said. "I figured I'd concentrate on what kinds of theories could now be proved or disproved by engaging the help of mutants gifted with the appropriate powers," she said. "I'm sort of stuck here--" and she pointed to a passage halfway down the page. "I can't come up with anything right there." Hank looked at the indicated place as Jubilee added, "I hate writing speeches. I hate giving speeches."
Hank adjusted his glasses and read the passage. "Well, Jubilee, if I may make a suggestion…"
Logan drowsed off as Xavier and Jubilee and Hank started discussing Jubilee's speech. It was going to be a long flight.
He awoke some time later as the plane bucked. The flight attendant's voice came on over the loudspeakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and return your seats and tray tables to their upright position. We are encountering a bit of rough weather ahead. It might get a little bumpy, but don't worry, we're going to be perfectly all right."
Logan growled as the plane bucked again. Sitting beside him, Jubilee woke groggily, and rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Plane's hittin' some turbulence," Logan told her. "Not to worry, Jubes."
There was a sudden loud splatter against the window, and Jubilee looked out, to see a wall of hard rain hit the window. Further off, in the clouds, lightning sizzled against the dark backdrop.
"Doesn't look very reassuring, does it?" said a voice behind them. Jubilee turned, to see the smiling face of Professor Matthew Cohen and his new wife Claudia.
Jubilee's face lit up. "Why Professor! I didn't know you were on this flight!" she said. "I haven't seen you since your wedding. Congratulations, by the way, and I'm sorry I didn't say that sooner."
"You were rather tied up at the time," Cohen said dryly. "That big ugly mutant that broke in and carried you off—nasty business. I was so glad to hear you'd gotten home safe." He looked at Logan. "And this is your young man?" He offered his hand to Logan.
Jubilee laughed. "Not so young, Matthew, but yes, he's my 'young man' as you put it." She turned. "Logan, meet Matthew Cohen, one of best physics professors at Columbia University, and this is Claudia, his wife. Professor Cohen, this is Professor Charles Xavier and Dr. Henry McCoy, both very close friends of mine." Xavier and Hank shook his hand cordially.
"We met," Logan said, shaking the man's hand. "At your residence, it was, an' it was you who loaded me down with all that food in case we got stuck up there. Didn' have a chance ta thank ya then, but it all came in handy."
"I trust you came through it all right?" Cohen looked at Jubilee over the edge of his glasses.
Jubilee nodded. "Yes, I did, thanks to Logan." She squeezed his hand. Logan squeezed back.
"I'm glad," he said. "All that blood all over the carpet; I was worried maybe you'd been hurt severely."
Jubilee shook her head. "I've got a couple of scars on my leg, but that's all," she said.
Their conversation was cut short as the plane listed hard off to the right. Jubilee grabbed at the arm of her seat and her briefcase at the same time as several gasps of fear came from the passengers around them. Logan growled and grabbed the arms of his seat. "Where's Storm when ya need her?"
"It's not that bad, Logan, it really isn't," Jubilee said, but there was worry in her eyes too. Then she flinched as hail started to hit the window at her elbow.
Logan took her briefcase from her hand, unbuckled his seatbelt, and stood up, popping open the overhead compartment and stowing her bag in it. He sat down again and buckled his seatbelt as the plane jerked again.
The passenger in the seat in front of Jubilee screamed as lightning sizzled right in front of her window. "We're going to die!" she screamed, clutching the arm of the man sitting next to her hysterically.
Jubilee rolled her eyes and grinned at Logan, then braced herself in her seat as the plane tossed again. The speakers crackled to life again. "Ladies and gentlemen, the storm seems to be worsening. We will be diverting to Heathrow Airport in London until the storm lets up. We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience."
"Just get us on the ground!" the hysterical woman in front of them screamed, and around them, Jubilee could hear murmurs of assent from the other passengers. She agreed with them silently, too. It wasn't the worst flight she'd ever been on, but it was certainly starting to look like one of the worst, and the fact that the plane was a smaller one didn't help at all.
Xavier closed his eyes and probed the pilot and co pilot in their seats in the front. The plane's bucking didn't seem to be all involving turbulence, he felt, and his guess was confirmed when he 'saw' in the pilot's mind the fear. He broke off the link and spoke telepathically to Jubilee, Hank, and Logan. There seems to be something wrong with the third engine, he said grimly, pointing out the window to where the third engine hung from the wing.
Jubilee's mental voice spoke in their heads, startling them. She had discovered she had latent telepathic powers, but she used them so seldom it was sometimes easy to forget she had them at all. She had told Logan once that she didn't use it often because it gave her headaches. Can you tell what's wrong with it? she asked Xavier.
He shook his head. No, the pilot just knows something is wrong. He's not sure of the exact problem.
Jubilee looked out the window to the engine, just as the plane lurched again. There was a brief moment when it felt like she was weightless, then gravity slammed them back into their seats.
Behind her, Claudia shivered and tried not to look terrified as the plane bucked again. Jubilee smiled sympathetically and turned to speak to her, trying to alleviate some of her nerves. "It's okay, Claudia," she said. The woman tried to force a smile, but it was definitely strained, and there was a bit of tightness around her eyes.
Professor Cohen patted her arm and tried to look cheerful. "So are you going to the summit in Brussels?" he asked them.
"Yes, we've all been invited to speak," Jubilee said.
Cohen's eyes twinkled. "Well, at least you have help with your speech," he said gently. "I remember how much you hate making speeches."
The speakers crackled to life, and the flight attendant announced, "We have contacted Heathrow Airport and have received clearance to land. We will be coming up on the airport in just a few minutes, ladies and gentlemen, you will be able to see the airport's lights off the front edge of the left wing in a few minutes." Jubilee pressed her forehead to the glass, looking for the lights. In front of them, the hysterical woman said angrily, "Well it's about time! Can't you all move this big stupid thing any faster?"
She jumped as a bolt of lightning sizzled past the window, then another. Just as they were all breathing a big sigh, there was another one, a right blinding flash, and a loud crack. The woman started screaming as the plane went wild, and Jubilee and Logan stared in silent horror out of her window.
Lightning had struck the wing of the plane, and sheared off the last few feet of wing and taken the engine with it. "We're gonna die!" the woman in front of them screamed, and her screams were mirrored by the screams of the other passengers. Logan wrapped his arms tight around Jubilee. The plane was going to crash. There was no doubt in his mind about it. But at least he would die with Jubilee in his arms.
Xavier felt the fear and panic in the pilots in the cabin, and then the flight attendants and the rest of the passengers. He gripped the arms of his seat, feeling a surge of that panic rising inside him. It couldn't end like this. All the work he'd done, all the times he'd cheated or escaped death, all the effort he'd put into his X-Men and his dream, and it was going to end out here over the Atlantic Ocean in a fiery conflagration as the out-of-control plane plunged into the ocean.
Hank closed his eyes. He'd never been a particularly religious person, but sitting here now, facing imminent death, thinking about the people he'd miss at the mansion, a snatch of Nightcrawler's voice kept playing through his mind, and his mouth silently formed the words "Our Father, who art in heaven…"
Jubilee clutched Logan tight in her arms, feeling his love wrap around her like a blanket. Oddly enough, she didn't feel afraid. Logan was with her; nothing could tear them apart, not even death. She felt oddly euphoric, as though she was walking on air…
"Walking on air," she whispered, an idea forming in her mind. "Walking on air! That's it!" She pushed Logan's arms away and unfastened her seatbelt. Ignoring Logan's cry she ran as best as she could toward the emergency hatch at the back of the plane. The Flight attendant didn't even try to stop her, too terrified to do anything as Jubilee yanked the handle. She took a deep breath and jumped out into the swirling maelstrom of the storm outside.