Cyclops was working on his daily reports and catching up on old ones. He hadn't had a single moment to himself or with Jean all morning. I guess she's not too happy about this morning's event. I know she didn't approve of the test. Oh well - I deal about that later -
At that moment though Jean entered the war room, decided to sort things out. "We need to talk!"
"Honey, I'll be finished in 5 - "
Impatient, Jean interrupted him. "No we need to talk. Now."
Turning from his computer screen to his wife, Cyclops knew by the tone of her voice that she was trying not to yell. I guess it is that bad!
"Ok Jean, I'm all ears."
"Scott, can you imagine the pain Sidney has been through these last 24 hours? Do you have the slightest idea of the state that girl is in?"
Well I have lost my brother in a accident also and besidesSophie isn't dead. He thought to himself but quickly decided not to mention those facts.
"Jean, I know it's hard but - "
"No Scott, you have no idea. That girl is only 19, she has probably had to run away from home and live clandestinely in a foreign country. Her cousin has been shot and in a coma in Virginia, which is miles away from the institute, in case you hadn't noticed and on top of that, she has just discovered that she was a mutant! For goodness sake Scott, what right do you have to make her go through a real combat facing Gambit and Wolverine!"
"But she made it, didn't she?"
"Well you're damn lucky she did. You didn't even think about her safety did you? All that matters to you is the team and don't you dare say I'm wrong!"
Her face had gone as red as her hair but she didn't care anymore if she was yelling. Cyclops looked shocked that she could think that all that mattered to him was the team.
Today though, she was right, he pushed Natura too far and because of him things could have been much worse.
"I'm sorry Jean, you're perfectly right, I acted like an idiot. I've been selfish and mean with Na - Sidney but I was worried that she would only be a burden to us."
"That is so lame Scott. If it bothered you that much you should have told me straight away instead of imposing all these tests to her."
She seemed to have calmed down, but that didn't help Cyclops. It was worse now, she was no longer mad but disappointed. "Jean, I'm sorry, honestly."
He came up to her and took her hands. "I love you so much and you seemed so sad aboutSophie that I didn't want to tell you about my problems. They seemed minimal compared to your pain. I should have listened to you when you asked me to stop in the control room. I'm really sorry, can you forgive me?"
He gave her his cutest smile and wished that she would hopefully forget his fault.
Jean pulled back her hands and turned to the door. "I'm not the one you should apologise to Scott. I just came to make you realise what you had done." She walked out without looking back at him.
Cyclops, his hands dropping to his sides, was surprised but regretful. Why did I not listen to her? He asked himself as he walked off to the infirmary.
Beast helped Natura back into her infirmary bed. He had managed to take some blood before she woke up and he told her so.
"Thank goodness you did." She answered with a faint smile. "Otherwise I don't know if I would have let you."
Beast laughed at her words. He pictured himself asking for help so as to hold down Sidney while pricking her with his needle. He told her that she needed to rest now while he would examine the blood sample in his laboratory.
As he walked out though, Gambit strode in and pleaded Beast to let him talk to his patient.
"You have a 10 minute permission and then she really needs to rest." He walked out as Gambit rejoiced.
"Bonjour, belle!" He sat down next to her bed.
"Oh Gambit - Look, I'm sorry about this morning, I shouldn't have snapped at you in the danger room but Cyclops would never have let me in the team if I hadn't confronted Wolverine by myself."
Gambit helped her sit up on her bed. "No prob' chere! I hoped y'liked de present t'ough!"
Her eyes lit up at the mention of the bo staff. "Oh of course, thank you, it kinda saved me! Wolverine is so agile, he totally avoided all my best shots and when I saw those claws -"
She started mimicking Wolverine menacing her with his claws. Gambit started laughing, no one had ever made fun of Logan and his adamantium skeleton before.
Dis girl's an angel.
"Seriously, I was so glad to find your staff dangling on my belt, I was just wondering when you had put it there though -"
"De thief ne'er reveals his secrets, didn't y'know dat?" He looked at her using all the charm he had. He liked this girl after all and wanted to know more.
Sidney could sense his move and quickly her face started to blush. Oh no! Now he's bound to know that his charm is working on me! Stop gazing at him, you idiot!
Her eyes though could not stop dazing into the red-on-black Cajun eyes. They were so comforting yet seemed so dangerous at the same time. Gambit using his empathy could pick up a mess of emotions coming from Sidney and didn't know what to make of them.
Or was she aware of his power and hiding her real emotions behind a patchwork of false ones?
Unfortunately Cyclops came into the infirmary and saved Natura before Gambit had time to ask.
"Oh, Gambit you're here too." He walked up to the bed, hoping not to interrupt an important conversation. Gambit nodded in return.
"It's ok, maybe I should come back later." Cyclops turned around, seeing the annoyed look which had spread on Gambit's face but Sidney quickly called him back.
"No Scott, stay. Gambit was about to leave anyway - " She turned to the Cajun, her eyes showing him to the door.
I was? Huh, dat's kinda short - Gambit quickly got up and left his place to Cyclops regretting to have perhaps made his move to quickly on her.
Natura seeing him go then turned to her new leader. "You need to talk to me?"
"Yeah, I - I came to apologise for being such a jerk this morning and imposing you this stupid battle against both Gambit and Wolverine." He blurted out quickly, he never really liked to admit he was wrong.
"Oh - I wasn't expecting this - um, really it doesn't matter. I mean seriously, I'm the one who proposed the idea to the Professor at first even though it wasn't exactly what I had in mind - but it's ok, I had fun, I'm just glad I wasn't badly injured."
"Really, I am very sorry. A leader shouldn't push a new team member like that on her first day especially after all the emotional events you've recently been through."
Oh so this is what it's really about! I bet Jean asked him to be nice because of Sophie's coma. Natura was a bit disappointed that his apology wasn't as sincere as she thought but she accepted it anyway.
"I'm fine Scott, I can handle my personal problems by myself. No need to go soft on me because of them." She felt very tired and had no intention of talking her whole problems through with someone she hardly knew.
She lied back down in her bed and was ready to fall asleep when Cyclops spoke up again.
"By the way, I was just going through the daily reports when I realised that I had to create your personal file for our computer base, Cerebro."
Natura looked confused. "You write daily reports? And you keep personal files on each team member?"
"Yeah, I'll explain them to you someday. Just would you mind popping in the war room tomorrow so that I could get your file done?"
"Sure whatever."
Cyclops satisfied of her answer, turned his heels and sped off out of the infirmary. Before he left though, he called back to Natura. "Hey by the way, you - you fight good!"
Natura hearing his footsteps walking out into the corridor, fell asleep, a happy smile on her face, the first since a very long time.
Night has come and the mansion is asleep. In the war room, Natura was sitting in the dark in front of the computer screen. She was obviously hacking it.
Where are those damn files he was talking about?
She found the confidential folder where all private information on each team member was secretly kept. Come on, hurry up you stupid computer. Stop making so much noise!
Suddenly she heard the door creak and as she turned around, she saw it was wide open, showing the dark creepy corridors of the basement.
Shit, now I'm scared. Calm down Sid - I bet it's a team member spying on me - they probably don't trust me enough.
She got up slowly, trying to make the less noise possible and walked across the war room towards the door. It was dark and she could hardly see a thing when suddenly, an invisible aggressor hit her to the ground and her arms were held tight above her head. She tried to scream but she was so terrified no sound will come out of her mouth.
You're a mutant, for Christ's sake! Bring it on girl, now is the time to use your skills!
It wasn't her reflexes, which failed her though, it was her own body. She could still feel the intense pain coming from her recent wounds and it physically prevented her from freeing herself. Indeed her attacker's body was simply crushing her against the ground and she was stuck, immobilised.
Out of nowhere, an illuminated object suddenly threatened to slice her throat. As her eyes adapted to the sudden light, she realised that the object was a playing card and it was charged with bio-kinetic energy ready to explode.
"Gambit!" The body weight was instantly lifted and she was pulled up. The lights were switched on.
"Well hello chere!" Sure enough it was the Cajun, his eyes were lurking straight at Natura in her tank top and shorts with his devilish grin. "Wasn't expecting t' see ya here?"
Natura suddenly realised that she had been busted. "Oh - I was just checking out some stuff on the computer - you know - email." She tried to sound the most convincing possible but she could not charm the natural Cajun charmer.
"Y'can't lie t'Gambit chere, what were y'tryin' t'do?" He looked suspiciously at the computer screen, which had just finished downloading the files and opened them.
"Fine you caught me! I just wanted to read those damn files. I wanted to learn more about you guys, I hardly know anyone except for Rogue and Jean!"
Gambit could sense her sincerity as she spoke. "Well den why don't y'ask? I'm Gambit and I come from Cajun country, belle!" He stuck his hand out and reluctantly she took it, remembering how they could charge objects.
"Were you spying on me?"
Gambit laughed out at her sudden question. "De X-Men trust each ot'er reme'ber?"
"Oh." Feeling guilty but more relaxed, Natura then sat down only to realise that Gambit was just wearing a pair of black boxers. He was half naked and was standing a few feet away from her with his charming grin. Gambit realised too and could feel her heart beat faster as she looked at him.
"Y're drooling chere." He was amused to see how his words instantly caused her to blush, bright red.
"I'm so not!" He's got one hell of a body! She turned around back to the computer screen and started to look at the files totally embarrassed. "Er - Cajun country, what's that?"
"N'Awlins, chere! Dat's where I got de French accent." He walked over and closed Iceman's personal file before she could read it. "An' if y'want t'know more, y're gonna have t'ask!"
Shit, I guess I'll ask Rogue more questions.
She got up and looked at him straight in his red-on-black eyes. "So that's how you got that fake French accent! I was wondering if it wasn't just some kind of joke!"
"Oh yeah - " Remy didn't like it when people mocked his Cajun origins. "And what would y'know 'bout 'le français'?"
Remy could see Natura clench her jaw muscles. "That ain't none of your business!" She didn't shout but her tone had shifted into a menacing one.
"Didn't think so! Y're not up t'be a French girl anyway."
Even through the dim light, Remy could see her dark green eyes suddenly light up. Dat girl's gonna hit me!
"Excuse me - ?" She took a step further towards him, clenching her fists but stopped.
Pain had oozed through her entire body again and she stumbled towards the nearby table clutching it before her legs gave way to her weight. She was about to faint from the pain and Gambit realised it. He picked her up in his arms though she yelled at him to put her down and carried her out, back to the infirmary.
What if someone sees us like this! She thought to herself but she had no more strength left to fight off Gambit and let him carry her back to the infirmary bed.