Golden Years: Watchful Eyes
author: Lucinda
main characters: Jubilee, Logan
rating: pg
disclaimer: Nobody that you recognize from Marvel is mine.
distribution: please ask first.
note: set approximately sixty years in the future of the X-Men movie. Probably a far more optimistic future than they will actually get.
Jube Lee-Han sighed as she watched a group of students talking and whispering amongst themselves. They were all so young, no more than seventeen, and still children. They were still awkward, half formed adolescents, uncertain who they were or what they wanted to do with their lives. Their biggest worries were fashions, music and local gossip. Well, maybe some of them had broader worries. And she mustn't forget the concerns of homework, difficult exams and attempting to evade the advisors and adult supervision.
Oh yes, she was adult supervision now. Her hair was still short and wild, but now it was a pale grey, like fine ashes. She was actually considered responsible enough to have authority over impressionable young minds... maybe the fact that she was seventy eight years old had influenced young Charles Summers into giving her the position. In some ways he reminded her so much of his father... except that his hair was a bit more reddish... now touched with grey, he could be Cyclops all over again. Same body type, same stiff approach to procedure, same red glasses. Sometimes it just about made her get choked up, he looked so much like his father... But Scott was dead now, and had been for thirty years.
And in the sixty years since she'd come here, she'd been an X-Man, helped save the world, lost her leg to a psychotic reptilian mutant and been forced off the team while recuperating. She just couldn't do the same things anymore without her leg. So, scarred and one legged, she'd been forced to spend time healing in a convalescent hospital. She'd felt so self conscious of the slashes over her cheek and neck, where the demented mutant had tried to rip her face off, literally. She'd been lucky that he hadn't popped an eye or slashed an artery.
Dear god she'd been bitter about that. She'd always hated to be cooped up. But if she hadn't been there she wouldn't have met Tom Han, wouldn't have fallen in love with the man with such spirit and fire inside. She wouldn't have run away with him to the circus, getting married and having five children.
Of course, once she'd got the prosthetic, she'd insisted on practicing with the acrobats, feeling like she'd been getting soft and helpless from inactivity and a lack of training. She'd ended up the carefully masked assistant to a stage magician performing tricks for the circus crowds. She had two children who'd become acrobats, and a lion tamer, an accountant, and a clown. Now, her grand children were starting to be old enough to go out into the world, to start their independent lives...
Some of them were mutants, but that didn't matter. One of them wanted to be a teacher, and another wanted to be a policeman. That was as close as they ever wanted to come to being 'heroes'. But they'd loved her stories, even though they were certain that 'nan Lee' was exaggerating her stories to make them more exciting. She'd just smiled, knowing the truth, but not worried enough to argue. Besides, she was older now, and scarred, and still had a limp, no mater how good the prosthetic was. It didn't move quite the same.
After Tom had died, she'd fallen into depression. If one of Jean and Scott's kids hadn't picked up on it, she might have just dried up and died from despair. Rachel was just as much an interfering busy-body as her parents and almost gran'pa Xav'r had ever been. So, they'd brought her back here, and put her in charge of watching the children. Children who didn't understand how much things had changed, had no idea how much people had fought and bled and died so that they could live this oblivious life.
"Hey kid. Still eat chili-cheese-fries?" A deep gravely voice came from behind her.
She spun around, her face lighting up in a grin. She barely noticed the scars pulling at her eyelids or the corner of her mouth anymore. "Wolvie!" She flung herself into his arms, delighted to see her friend again.
She looked at him, his hair still the coarse dark mane that it had always been, his face unwrinkled, unchanged by time. Only his eyes looked any different. "Jubes. Got a new cyberleg, hmm? This one any more flexible?" He had a small smile, one that said he was glad to see her.
"You haven't changed a bit, Wolvie. I think I'm jealous. As for chili-cheese-fries, of course I still eat them! I may be old and grey, but I'm not that far gone." She smiled at him, a hint of her youthful mischief lurking in her eyes. "So, are you buying?"
Logan just chuckled, and they began to walk towards the front doors. "So, still up for a ride on the Harley? I've had to get a newer one, the old one gave up on me about fifteen years back..."
Charles Summers was walking through, one hand full of disks for his class. He looked so much like his father in that moment that Logan gave a sharp nod. "Sc... Charles. Got a good sized crop of kids here."
"Logan." His exasperated sigh was all Jean. "Would it do any good for me to tell you that Ms Lee-Han is an older citizen now and doesn't need you endangering her safety?"
Logan gave a small shrug. "I don't wreck. She'll be fine."
They continued out into the twilight courtyard. "He looks so much like his dad. They almost smell the same."
Jube looked at Logan, for the first time realizing how hard things must be for him. To watch everyone around him grow old or die while he stayed the same... "How do you do it? Doesn't this place just remind you of the past all the time?"
"All the time. It was easier back when you were one of those young troublemakers. I didn't have that much that I could remember, nobody looked more than vaguely familiar. But now... Yeah. He's Scott all over again, and then there's Jeannie's girls, Rachel and Terri and Kennedy, all so much like she was... And I'm still the same." There was something in his expression, something that she couldn't quite read.
She looked at him, certain that he had some sort of reasoning. "Then... why do you keep coming back to this place? Why... you can't tell me that you couldn't visit Dani's grave without getting caught."
"Because I want to remember. You've seen it in the kids, 'Ro's seen it. The youngsters today don't know how it was, don't care to learn. Somebody has to remember how far we've come, how much it cost. Since it looks like I'm going to be around a good long time, I might as well be that somebody." His eyes were almost haunted. "It took so much and so long to get this..."
Jube sighed, thinking over the students behavior and conversations. "Yeah... they can't imagine somebody getting all freaked out because the kid next to them has green hair, or feathers. They don't even understand why Xavier's was important. To them, the first X-Men are the heroes of legend. But I'm just a cranky old lady to dodge coming in after curfew, and 'Ro's just a gardner. Hank's just the old furry doctor who gives them their assorted vaccinations... Storm and Jubilee and the Beast are hero's, we're just old relics. It hurts sometimes."
"You sound a bit annoyed, firecracker." Logan sounded almost like he was laughing as they stopped in front of a gleaming Harley. It was one of the 'classic style', oddly reminiscent of his old bike.
She looked at him, her eyes sparkling a bit. "I think, if anything, I'm a bit jealous. I never got the sort of childhood that they have. It's just... they don't even know how lucky they are."
"Let's hope they never need to know." Logan's almost gentle suggestion was the last thing spoken before they roared down the driveway, headed to the only mall in the state that still made the real, old fashioned chili-cheese-fries.
end Watchful Eyes.
author: Lucinda
main characters: Jubilee, Logan
rating: pg
disclaimer: Nobody that you recognize from Marvel is mine.
distribution: please ask first.
note: set approximately sixty years in the future of the X-Men movie. Probably a far more optimistic future than they will actually get.
Jube Lee-Han sighed as she watched a group of students talking and whispering amongst themselves. They were all so young, no more than seventeen, and still children. They were still awkward, half formed adolescents, uncertain who they were or what they wanted to do with their lives. Their biggest worries were fashions, music and local gossip. Well, maybe some of them had broader worries. And she mustn't forget the concerns of homework, difficult exams and attempting to evade the advisors and adult supervision.
Oh yes, she was adult supervision now. Her hair was still short and wild, but now it was a pale grey, like fine ashes. She was actually considered responsible enough to have authority over impressionable young minds... maybe the fact that she was seventy eight years old had influenced young Charles Summers into giving her the position. In some ways he reminded her so much of his father... except that his hair was a bit more reddish... now touched with grey, he could be Cyclops all over again. Same body type, same stiff approach to procedure, same red glasses. Sometimes it just about made her get choked up, he looked so much like his father... But Scott was dead now, and had been for thirty years.
And in the sixty years since she'd come here, she'd been an X-Man, helped save the world, lost her leg to a psychotic reptilian mutant and been forced off the team while recuperating. She just couldn't do the same things anymore without her leg. So, scarred and one legged, she'd been forced to spend time healing in a convalescent hospital. She'd felt so self conscious of the slashes over her cheek and neck, where the demented mutant had tried to rip her face off, literally. She'd been lucky that he hadn't popped an eye or slashed an artery.
Dear god she'd been bitter about that. She'd always hated to be cooped up. But if she hadn't been there she wouldn't have met Tom Han, wouldn't have fallen in love with the man with such spirit and fire inside. She wouldn't have run away with him to the circus, getting married and having five children.
Of course, once she'd got the prosthetic, she'd insisted on practicing with the acrobats, feeling like she'd been getting soft and helpless from inactivity and a lack of training. She'd ended up the carefully masked assistant to a stage magician performing tricks for the circus crowds. She had two children who'd become acrobats, and a lion tamer, an accountant, and a clown. Now, her grand children were starting to be old enough to go out into the world, to start their independent lives...
Some of them were mutants, but that didn't matter. One of them wanted to be a teacher, and another wanted to be a policeman. That was as close as they ever wanted to come to being 'heroes'. But they'd loved her stories, even though they were certain that 'nan Lee' was exaggerating her stories to make them more exciting. She'd just smiled, knowing the truth, but not worried enough to argue. Besides, she was older now, and scarred, and still had a limp, no mater how good the prosthetic was. It didn't move quite the same.
After Tom had died, she'd fallen into depression. If one of Jean and Scott's kids hadn't picked up on it, she might have just dried up and died from despair. Rachel was just as much an interfering busy-body as her parents and almost gran'pa Xav'r had ever been. So, they'd brought her back here, and put her in charge of watching the children. Children who didn't understand how much things had changed, had no idea how much people had fought and bled and died so that they could live this oblivious life.
"Hey kid. Still eat chili-cheese-fries?" A deep gravely voice came from behind her.
She spun around, her face lighting up in a grin. She barely noticed the scars pulling at her eyelids or the corner of her mouth anymore. "Wolvie!" She flung herself into his arms, delighted to see her friend again.
She looked at him, his hair still the coarse dark mane that it had always been, his face unwrinkled, unchanged by time. Only his eyes looked any different. "Jubes. Got a new cyberleg, hmm? This one any more flexible?" He had a small smile, one that said he was glad to see her.
"You haven't changed a bit, Wolvie. I think I'm jealous. As for chili-cheese-fries, of course I still eat them! I may be old and grey, but I'm not that far gone." She smiled at him, a hint of her youthful mischief lurking in her eyes. "So, are you buying?"
Logan just chuckled, and they began to walk towards the front doors. "So, still up for a ride on the Harley? I've had to get a newer one, the old one gave up on me about fifteen years back..."
Charles Summers was walking through, one hand full of disks for his class. He looked so much like his father in that moment that Logan gave a sharp nod. "Sc... Charles. Got a good sized crop of kids here."
"Logan." His exasperated sigh was all Jean. "Would it do any good for me to tell you that Ms Lee-Han is an older citizen now and doesn't need you endangering her safety?"
Logan gave a small shrug. "I don't wreck. She'll be fine."
They continued out into the twilight courtyard. "He looks so much like his dad. They almost smell the same."
Jube looked at Logan, for the first time realizing how hard things must be for him. To watch everyone around him grow old or die while he stayed the same... "How do you do it? Doesn't this place just remind you of the past all the time?"
"All the time. It was easier back when you were one of those young troublemakers. I didn't have that much that I could remember, nobody looked more than vaguely familiar. But now... Yeah. He's Scott all over again, and then there's Jeannie's girls, Rachel and Terri and Kennedy, all so much like she was... And I'm still the same." There was something in his expression, something that she couldn't quite read.
She looked at him, certain that he had some sort of reasoning. "Then... why do you keep coming back to this place? Why... you can't tell me that you couldn't visit Dani's grave without getting caught."
"Because I want to remember. You've seen it in the kids, 'Ro's seen it. The youngsters today don't know how it was, don't care to learn. Somebody has to remember how far we've come, how much it cost. Since it looks like I'm going to be around a good long time, I might as well be that somebody." His eyes were almost haunted. "It took so much and so long to get this..."
Jube sighed, thinking over the students behavior and conversations. "Yeah... they can't imagine somebody getting all freaked out because the kid next to them has green hair, or feathers. They don't even understand why Xavier's was important. To them, the first X-Men are the heroes of legend. But I'm just a cranky old lady to dodge coming in after curfew, and 'Ro's just a gardner. Hank's just the old furry doctor who gives them their assorted vaccinations... Storm and Jubilee and the Beast are hero's, we're just old relics. It hurts sometimes."
"You sound a bit annoyed, firecracker." Logan sounded almost like he was laughing as they stopped in front of a gleaming Harley. It was one of the 'classic style', oddly reminiscent of his old bike.
She looked at him, her eyes sparkling a bit. "I think, if anything, I'm a bit jealous. I never got the sort of childhood that they have. It's just... they don't even know how lucky they are."
"Let's hope they never need to know." Logan's almost gentle suggestion was the last thing spoken before they roared down the driveway, headed to the only mall in the state that still made the real, old fashioned chili-cheese-fries.
end Watchful Eyes.