Disclaimer – I don't own the X-Men, X-Men:Evolution or any of its iterations
This takes place during the episode Day of Reckoning – from John Grey's point of view.
Corporate Policy - Chapter 6 – Unwanted Visitors
John was in the den listening to his favorite afternoon radio program. The host and a caller were arguing over a hot political topic, going at it full tilt. He did not agree with the host on most issues – it was just interesting to hear how the other side's mouthpiece thought aloud.
Just then a different voice came through the radio. "- is incredible. A huge android is stalking a group of people on the ground. We're reporting with breaking news from downtown Bayville.- "
John was up and running for the TV remote before his mind registered the fact she might be in danger. Power on, cartoons, flip - golf, flip – cooking, flip and there it was. An aerial view of Main Street in Bayville from the news helicopter, and below was a giant red robot towering over the streets John had driven on just this past weekend. A series of energy blasts from the robot's chest exploded around a group of people below it.
The TV reporter said, "Chuck, get me a close up on the targets." The picture lost focus for a second and then – there she was. Her hands at her temples as she stood in her battle uniform. Her eyebrows knit, a car rose up behind her, seemingly on its own then flew towards the robot at a high speed.
Dear Lord, no.
Her life was never going to be the same from this point on. He and Charles had talked about the revelation of mutants many times. His friend had emailed instructions as what to do in case of this.
Elaine walked into the den saying, "Why do you insist on having the volume so loud? Are you watching those space shows again?" Then he heard her gasp as he raced towards the computer, "Wait - is that Jean on the TV?"
The emergency instructions. He knew he hid the email attachment from Charles somewhere safe in the laptop, deep in a sea of folders – somewhere so deep and safe he had no idea where it could be in his present state of confusion. He had renamed the file to hide it from curious eyes – the name had something to do with the boy named Scott…
The reporter on the TV went on, "… identified as local high school soccer star, Jean Grey. We're not sure who else-…"
Elaine was in a panic, "John, what's going on?" He knew his wife was the key to the file name of those emergency instructions. Deep breath and think. The link between her and Scott. That's it!
He started a search for a file called 'penniless orphan' when the phone rang. Elaine got up and answered it, walking out of the den towards the living room.
John's cell phone vibrated in his pants and he fished it out of his pocket, "Hello?" A voice he recognized came from the speaker, "John, it's Fred from IT." His bridge partner at the university cafeteria for the weekly card game. "The website server just crashed from taking a lot of hits from outside the college grounds. It looks like everyone and their brother is doing a search on your name for some reason. Just wanted to give you a heads up. Gotta go." About a year ago, Fred's daughter had needed some help with a workplace romance that went awry. John had helped with the restraining order.
The file Charles sent appeared in the search window and John right clicked it and selected print. He called out, "Elaine, who are you talking to?" She called back, "It's the newsdesk from Channel 6 and they have their facts about Jean all wrong. I'm setting them straight." Deep breath. He tried his best to be civil, "Elaine, hang up the phone right now."
She obviously was annoyed, "John, I can handle this. I'm not going to be rude to the nice girl on the phone. She's been telling me what's going on."
Not for the first time John wondered, :Why did I have to marry a control freak?: He walked over to his wife, took the phone from her and hung it up. He grasped her arm in a firm grip, walking her towards the stairs and said, "It's a delay tactic – she talks to you, the news truck knows where to find us. Go pack an overnight bag for the two of us, we have to leave right now."
Elaine was furious now, "John, that was not nice to hang up on the reporter. I don't understand. Where are we going in such a hurry?"
That, he thought, was an excellent question. Where to go.
He regretted never talking with Elaine before about what they were expected to do when Jean's powers were revealed. But he knew she just would have grilled him endlessly about how she knew better then anyone how to handle the situation.
He tried to reassure her, "We need to leave the house. Soon the neighborhood will be crawling with reporters and tv cameras. If you want to sleep anytime tonight, we need to leave right now. Now please go upstairs and pack for a couple of days."
He waited at the bottom of the stairs till he was sure she was on her way to pack. He ran back to the laptop grabbing the printout and the phone rang again. John shouted towards the ceiling, "Let the answering machine get it!"
He glanced at the caller ID on the handset as he shut down the computer. Sure enough it was another TV station from Hartford calling to verify their facts on the Grey household. It wouldn't take long before the New York City and Boston stations would start calling too.
John ran to the doors that served as entrances to the house and locked them. He hoped the security system would be a deterrent to any snooping reporters brave enough to risk a breaking and entering charge in search of an exclusive scoop.
He glanced at the instructions hoping that Jean knew what to do at her end. He grabbed the laptop off his desk, went to the garage and unlocked his car. John was glad he stopped for gas last night after they got their weekly ice cream cone fix downtown. He loaded the laptop and a couple of sleeping bags into the trunk.
He went back into the kitchen as Elaine came down the stairs asking, "Do you want your wool robe or the lighter one?" John knew the time to leave was quickly approaching.
He shouted, "Get in the car!" as he ran upstairs to get whatever she had packed so far. She went to the kitchen muttering about what a grouch he was, but she did go into the garage.
He grabbed the bag she had packed and zipped it closed. He swept their toiletries off the counter into an empty garbage bag and raced downstairs. He went to his desk, pulled out the top drawer and felt around under the desktop. Where was the envelope he taped in here so long ago? A corner of the packing tape had peeled up and he ripped it out with all his might. The money he stashed in the desk tumbled out and he stuffed into his pants pocket.
After entering the garage, John set the house alarm security code as he fumbled with the bag of clothes. He saw Elaine was putting some water bottles into the car as he loaded the back trunk. He as glad she was coming up to speed with the urgency of what was happening. His eyes raced around the racks of boxes and storage boxes, searching for anything else they might need.
There was nothing here of any use to him right now. Nothing here in this place or anywhere could undo what happened to Jean today.
He punched the garage door open button and was glad to not see any reporters. He jumped into the car and started it quickly.
They drove slowly out of the garage and as John looked left, a TV news truck paused at the stop sign up the street. To the right it is. He pulled out of the driveway as quickly as he could without drawing attention to the car.
He fished his cell phone out of his pants and gave it to Elaine asking, "Would you call Sara and warn her the media will be after her too?" Elaine started to dial the number but asked, "What would they want with us?" "Ratings," he muttered under his breath.
Now – got to stay off the highway with the toll booths - no cameras or EZ-Pass computer records to track them.
He glanced at his watch and decided they could find a diner somewhere off road. Hopefully a place with no video camera that could be used to track their movements. It might be best to wait till after the dinner rush to reduce the number of people who might recognize them.
Elaine was able to contact their older daughter Sara, who had not seen any TV trucks yet. She and her husband had been packing and would be rolling in about ten minutes. Kathy, his sister's daughter, had called Sara offering their vacation home near Lake George. They arranged to meet around 8pm.
As John pictured the family cabin in the next county over, he realized it was perfect. Hidden in the thick trees and being early spring, no winter skiers or summer vacationers would be around to spot them.
He traveled north towards the high-speed road that went further into the Connecticut hills and crossed into New York. He accelerated to be able to merge into the cars quickly approaching him from behind. He felt swept up in the course of history this day.
This would be one of those says to describe to your grandkids – I was home listening to the radio when it happened. If Jean had any chance of having children now.
His thoughts turned to Jean again - her life as she knew it was over.
Author's notes: Sorry about the delay there – I had been posting every three days there for a while. I had a rush of one shots that couldn't wait.
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