A TWIST OF FATE

Chapter Eight

"Like this is so cool! Having a pool party on the last day of vacation is like, such a good idea!" Kitty exclaimed walking unto the pavement of the pool area.

"Ja, I for vone zink it's a great idea!"

"Speak fer yoreself I'm goin' crazy havin' ta be all covered up." Rogue complained stretching out her sleeves.

"Dun worry chere Remy t'inks it makes you look sexy."

Rogue glared at him. "Of course you do. I'm gonna hit the hot tub."

"Remy will go wit' you petite."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Aw, just look at those two, it seems they have like gotten over their differences." Kitty pointed out to Kurt.

"Ja and just in time too."

"Like speaking of which, where's Jean and Warren?"

Kurt shrugged. "I zaw Varren in ze kitchen before ve vent out, but I haven't zeen Jean all morning."

Kitty nodded. "Yeah, like that reminds me, I haven't seen Scott in like, a while either. Do you think maybe something's going on?"

"No. I zink maybe Scott's just having a hard time burying all his feelings. I mean after all ve know he hasn't gotten over Jean. And now for her to appear out of ze blue vith a fiancée, zat probably doesn't exactly make a guy feel good."

"Gee, I mean like Scott and Jean fall in love, they expect baby, Jean gets kidnapped, Scott tries to save her, he has to choose between his true love and their baby, he chooses his true love, she gets mad, she leaves, she comes back engaged, he still loves her, and now he has to contend with her husband to be. Like if you put it that way, it makes me feel like I'm caught in the middle of like a soap opera."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Vomen, zay alvays zink zat vay. Look it might seem like a very stirring dilemma, but it probably vouldn't be so cool if it vas your dilemma."

Kitty sighed, "Yeah like you're right. But still it's a very complicated love triangle."

"And do you know vhat vould make it even more complicating?" He asked.

Kitty shook her head.

"Your interference. Vhy don't ve stay out of zis vone zis time, Ja?"

Kitty pursed her lips. "I like, had no intention of getting involved."

"Keety you alvays get involved."

"Well not on purpose!"

"Vhatever, I'm just asking you as a friend to stay out of it."

"Like you have my word." Kitty held up her right hand. "Scouts honor."

"First off, you're not a scout, and Second, since vhen do you zink I vill take your vord for it?"

Kitty shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to like trust me."

"I guess I vill. But maybe you can promise me?"

"Fine I promise. But like the last thing I wanna do is to get involved in Jean's business. I mean her life is such a complicated tangled web, I don't even want to like, touch it."

"Zere zats more like it. Now vhat do you say ve put zese drinks down and jump in za pool?"

"Okay, like in a sec, I'm waiting for Jean to come out."

Kurt glared at her.

"What?"

"Keety vhat did ve just get done talking about?"

Kitty set down her pink lemonade. "Fine. Let's go."

"Scott please, I don't want to talk about it." Jean stressed, her voice tense.

Scott followed her as she walked out the doors to the back patio.

"Why not?"

"Because it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter?" He repeated surprised at her response.

"No, I didn't mean it that way." She stopped walking and turned to him. "This is just not the right time for this conversation."

"It's not the right time? When will it be the right time?"

Jean crossed her arms and looked at him sternly.

"Look, I don't think it's important for Warren to know. What happened that night…it was the first time we had seen each other in years, we just got caught up in all we were feeling and we got ahead of ourselves."

"Oh so now you're making excuses for it?" He asked.

She shook her head. "No I'm not. Everything just got away from us. We lost control for only a moment. That's it." She tried to convince him.

"Is that what you think happened?"

"That is all that happened!"

"Is that what you're telling yourself now?"

"Scott…look we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, it's that simple."

"No it's not that simple!" His voice grew louder.

"Scott please! Keep your voice down." She asked him through clenched teeth.

Scott exhaled deeply and set his jaw. "Look, there were obviously a connection of mutual feelings between us."

"I don't see it that way."

"I know you don't! That's what I'm trying to tell you. If I recall correctly, you believed it to 'feel so right.'" He quoted her.

"Isn't that what you said? That you couldn't understand how we ever let it go. Are you saying now that you never said that?" He asked.

"Yes—I did. In the heat of the moment. Scott…please…just-Don't tell Warren." She pleaded with him.

"Why? You think it'll break up your relationship?"

"No Warren can't know about us. He was already upset with me when he found out that I had never told him we had been married when our baby died."

Scott frowned. "You never told him that? Why?" He asked just as stumped as Warren had been upon hearing it.

She shrugged. "I don't know, okay? I don't know why I didn't tell him about us. Look, I know that you'd like nothing more than to see Warren and I go our separate ways, but I love him Scott, that's not what I want. So please, just don't tell him… okay?"

Scott clenched his teeth and tensed under hearing her say that she loved Warren. "Fine I won't." He relented.

"…Under one condition."

She rolled her head annoyed. "What is it?"

"That you break up your engagement to him." He answered honestly.

"What? No!" She disagreed.

"Why not? It's easy for you. You're used to walking away from things."

"I don't want to hurt him." She answered ignoring his last comment.

Scott smirked at the irony of it all. "Oh, so now you're considering his feelings."

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened between us, but you had a big part in that too. It wasn't just me."

"C'mon Jean, don't say a part of you doesn't want to go back to the way it was." He pleaded with her.

"No I don't." She firmly stood her ground.

He sighed frustrated. He finally conceded. "Alright. I won't tell him. But I still think he deserves to know."

"Well I disagree."

"Jean look, if you felt the need to keep our past marriage from him, and if you don't trust him enough to handle the news and to forgive you, than you shouldn't be marrying him."

"And that would serve your purposes, wouldn't it?" She asked irritably.

"My purposes?" He repeated. "You know what? I'm not going to tell you what you should or should not tell your fiancée that's your business."

For once she agreed with him. "You're right it is. I don't want to talk about this anymore." She dismissed.

"No I'm not done. There's still so much to talk about." He wasn't swayed to drop it.

"Scott, for once can we please just leave the past in the past? Just for once."

He paused thinking, than slowly nodded his head. "Fine. Whatever you want."

She was relieved he gave in. "Good. Look, Warren should be coming any minute now, it would probably be best if you left."

"I'm not done talking Jean." He warned her as he walked away.

Jean had just enough time to sigh and turn back to the patio, before Warren brushed up against her.

"Hey." He said wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the cheek.

She turned around and kissed him softly on the lips.

Warren smiled as they parted. "What was that for?"

"I just missed you."

"I was only gone for a minute."

"I know." She rested her head against his chest.

"So what do you say we go out there and have a good time?" He suggested.

"I like that idea." She held his hand walking out. He stopped her.

"Hey before we do, is there something I should know about?"

She shook her head. "No…why?"

"It's nothing. I just saw you talking with Scott, it seemed pretty intense."

Jean shrugged it off. "Oh you know Scott, he's just having a hard time dealing with everything."

"Is that all it was about?" He questioned.

She held his hands in hers. "Warren, I promise you, that's all it was about." She convinced him.

It took him a moment, but he believed her.

"Well will he be okay?" He tried to sound like he cared about Scott's well being, but he didn't.

She nodded. "Eventually. But I don't know."

"Yeah, he really loved you, didn't he. He still does." Warren stated the obvious.

"I can't help what he feels. Believe me if I could I'd make him feel peace about the whole thing, I would." She replied.

"Yeah, well I hate to have that feeling that I'm taking something from him."

"Don't think that way Warren. I left him years ago and I don't belong to anyone…let alone Scott."

"But you did. You did belong to him once, when you were married."

She shook her head, dismissing that away. "I'm sorry for not telling you about that. But we're not married anymore, that doesn't matter now."

"I know, I know." He said nodding his head. "But he had so many intense feelings for you, he was always there."

"No, No, not always." She glanced down to the ground remembering that period in her life.

"I'm sorry Jean I didn't mean to--" Warren tried to apologize realizing his mistake.

"It's okay, let's just forget about Scott for a while, huh? Let's just focus on us."

She hugged him. "You know we don't have to go to the pool party." She suggested.

Warren chuckled. "As much as I'd like that, I think we should."

Jean kissed him on the cheek. "Well maybe later than."

"Yeah… later." He replied doubtful.

"Hey Kurt like did you see that?" Kitty asked resting her elbows against the rim of the pavement keeping herself up.

"Kurt!" She protested patting him underwater so he'd come up.

"Vhat?" Kurt asked annoyed, popping his head up.

She stared at him in disbelief. A pair of green scuba glasses that covered his eyes and nose, muffled his voice.

"Like, Do you know how ridiculous that get-up looks on you?"

"Did you vant something Keety?" Kurt slanted his eyes irritably disregarding her remark.

"Well I just saw Scott and Jean talking in the corner by the sliding glass doors. They talked for a couple of minutes, than he stormed out right before Warren came in."

"Ja, So?" Kurt couldn't see the relevance in that.

"So… it looked pretty heated. I think maybe something's up." She assumed.

"Keety, you alvays zink somezing's up." He couldn't understand why this time was any different.

"Yeah I know, but they were arguing, Kurt."

He shrugged and snorted. "So vhat else is new? Zey don't talk anymore remember? Zey alvays end up fighting."

"Yeah but it sure looked to me like Scott wanted something from Jean."

"Vhat did he vant? And vow do you know any of zis anyvay?" He asked suspiciously.

She shrugged innocently. "I dunno."

He frowned. "You didn't phase over zere did you?"

Kitty posed her face in mock innocence. "Like, no…"

"Kitty!" He exclaimed knowing full well that she had.

"Well I didn't really mean to eavesdrop!" She defended herself. "I just, like, got out of the pool for a sec to get my lemonade! And like, I couldn't help but overhear a few things."

"I zought ve had an agreement zat you veren't gonna get involved." He reminded her.

"I'm not! "But think about it Kurt…let's look at the possibilities of what could cause this new argument…" She continued.

"Think about it," She encouraged him. "Like, picture this, Jean comes back to the institute, sees Scott for the first time, old feelings overcome their words and their emotions get the better of them."

"Vhat?" He asked completely confused.

Kitty lowered her voice.

"I think that, like, maybe one night… Scott and Jean might've, accidentally overstepped some boundaries."

He shook his head. "I'm not following you Keety."

She looked around before whispering to him,

"You know, like, crossed the line?"

Kurt shook his head not understanding. "I don't ze vhy zey vould do anyzing like zat."

"Yeah, but like, think about it though. Like you said, they're always arguing. So think about this, they meet up with each other, they're arguing, suddenly they feel a connection between them, old sensations overcome them, then they kiss, one thing leads to another and-"

"-Keety I don't like vhat you're implying." Kurt said, catching on.

Kitty sighed. "Okay, like, what do you think than?"

"Vhat I zink is zet zat vas such a vivid play on vords that now I know you vatch too many soap operasBesides if any of zis vere true, it's nein of our business to get involved in it."

"Okay, but wait a minute. It would make sense though, wouldn't it? If it happened? They could have been arguing because Warren wouldn't know about it."

"Vhoa, Vhoa, Vhoa! I zink vherever you're going vith zis zet maybe you should step back. Zis is all speculation. You don't have any proof to back zis up vith."

"But it makes sense. And it would complicate things a little more."

"Vhy are you so interested in Jean's life! Vhether your assumption is true or not, vhich I think it isn't,

You have no business getting involved in it."

"Well if something, like, did happen, don't you think it should be Warren's right to know about it?"

He shook his head. "Nein I don't. And even if I did, I don't zink it vould be your place to tell him. Ze best ve can do is stay out of it. Zis is none of our business. Zis is Jean's life, zis is her decision, let her sort it out."

She crossed her arms. "You don't even want to help her if we could? Like, she seems so confused."

"Sure. I vould help if I could but ve can't. Ze only vay I could help Jean is to keep my mouth shut and not go snooping avound her personal life." Kurt talked about it being himself, but Kitty knew he was talking about her.

"Keety," he continued. "Vhat you know and vhat you zink you overheard could all be about notzing. I zink ze best you can do to help, is to stay out of it. Za last zing Jean needs is more complication in her life. I'll zay it again, stay out of it." He stressed the importance of his words.

Kitty sighed agreeing with him. "Fine, like, this will be the last time you'll hear about it."

"Good." Kurt flashed his fangs in a smile before disappearing underwater again.

She sighed and frowned still trying to put all the pieces together. She glanced towards the shallow end of the pool where Jean and Warren were frolicking happily.

Kurt was right, she should stay out of it. But that still didn't keep her from wondering about it.

"Well we only have a few more days until our vacation's over." Warren said snuggling up closer to Jean on the patio chair.

"Yeah, well I'll take as much as I can get." She answered.

"Hey you know, I heard that Scott's brother Alex has invited the group to spend a couple days, the rest of our vacation, down in Hawaii with him. I guess he has some sort of surfing championship or something he wants Scott to be there for, and he invited the rest of the mansion."

"Are you suggesting that we spend the rest of our vacation in Sunny Hawaii?" She glanced up at him.

"It couldn't hurt. I hear that Kurt, Kitty, Remy and Rogue are going."

"And Scott." She added.

"Well of course."

She turned around to face him. "I don't think I want to go. I hope you don't mind, but I was thinking maybe we could go home early?"

"Any particular reason?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"Well it's just-I think I've done all I can here, and I just want to spend the rest of vacation alone with you."

"Well we could spend it alone in Hawaii too. It's a big island. We could have seclusion, our privacy."

She shrugged. "I know but-"

"-Jean does this have something to do with Scott going?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I just…"

"…I don't want you to avoid him, Jean. That's not the way to fix anything."

"I'm not avoiding him." She tried to explain.

"Than what are you doing?" He asked. "Jean, you can't keep walking away from your problems, from your past. Sooner or later you're going to have to stop running away when things get tough."

"I know, I agree with you." She said.

"Okay, well do you still want to spend the rest of vacation in the city?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I do. It's what I want."

He shrugged. "Okay. If it's what you want, we can leave tonight. They're all taking a plane to Hawaii, we can leave when they do."

"Mmm…that would be so nice." She said snuggling into his chest.

Warren wasn't so sure that her reasoning for leaving was to spend some quality time with him. She had an ulterior motive he knew that. He just had to get her to see it.

"See look at them Kitty. They look happy to me."

"Well of course they like do, Rogue. But I'm telling you I think something's going on."

"Well Remy would have ta side wit' Nightcrawler on dis one, He thinks it'd be best if Shadowcat stay out o' dis."

The four young adults stood around the patio and dried off from their swim as their eyes followed Jean and Warren, Kitty having told the other two about her suspicions.

"Unfortunately, Ah think Remy's right." Rogue commented. "Ya should stay out of it. Jean's business is Jean's business. It's none of ours. 'Sides we're leavin' ta go to Hawaii tonight and unless ya want ta stay behind, ya really can't do anything anyway." Rogue reminded her.

Kitty sighed as she watched Jean rest her head against Warren's chest. "Like, I know. You're right."

"We all care 'bout dem Kitty. We all saw what happened, what Slim and Redd had da go through, but that don't make it our business da step in." Remy said.

"Yeah, if you knew what was good for yah, you'd stay out of it, Kat." Rogue warned her as she left the patio with Remy following close behind.

"Zey're vight." Kurt said after the two had left. "Zey agree vith me."

She nodded. "Like, I know they do. All of you are right, like I know that. I just can't believe we're going to Hawaii and with all our luck we're going to be rained out." She sighed disappointed.

"Vell don't zink about zat. Zink about all ze fun ve'll have vonce ve get there." He offered, trying to cheer her up.

"C'mon Keety, let's leave Jean to her plans. Ve got two hours until ve leave and packing to do in ze meantime."

Kurt held Kitty around her shoulders as he teleported them out.

Okay well, this new QuickEdit way to previw and fix chapters on stories, is really confusing to me and it only reads so many scripts and characters in the draft until I just have to improvise.

Anyway, I'm just a very particular person, I'm my toughest critic, always challenging myself, and everything just has to be neat and perfect. But that's just how I am.

Well okay, so, 4 chapters left, More Scott and Jean coming up as well as Ororo/Jean later on with alot of talk and soul-searching mixed in.

So keep on reading!