Prologue
The darkness of the early September night and the quiet of the countryside made the roof of the mansion the perfect place for reflection. It had always been her favorite part of the building. Sure, the house itself held the amenities of a four star hotel... and then some, but something about the roof called to her from the beginning. It was one place where she could be alone with her thoughts, not to mention the thoughts of others that were constantly resonating in her mind.
She leaned back, breathing in the smells of early fall. School would be starting up again; their short summer break had come to an end, just before it had truly begun. It was going to be her third year of teaching, and she still couldn't get over the fact that she was in charge. It seemed like just yesterday that she was knocking timidly on the door of the Xavier institute, unsure of what the reaction from the other side would be. Unsure of herself, unsure of them. Now she was helping kids who found themselves in similar positions. Helping them grow and learn. Helping them understand their powers, understand their lives. She laughed to herself a little bit at that realization. She was helping them get to a point where she herself was not.
A point where she desperately needed to be.
She had been planning to get away for some time, to sort things out. It wouldn't be the first time she had done it, but she felt sure that it would have to be the last. She needed to get away from it. To start again, have a life that wasn't a part of the X-Men. She let out a deep sigh, she new she was putting it off, postponing the inevitable, but she couldn't bring herself to sever the tie. There was so much for her there that she knew she would miss. The school, the house itself, the team... and Remy. How she was going to tell him would be the hardest part. She was never very good at confrontations of this sort.
Below her somewhere, a window opened and the noise of the end of vacation faculty party rose towards the roof. The gutter creaked, and seconds later, Remy LeBeau was hoisting himself onto the roof, smiling foolishly.
"You coming to de party, chere?"
"Remy?"
"Oui?"
She wanted to tell him, but something made her stop. Maybe it was the stupid grin on his face, she didn't know. But something in her held her back.
"...Nothin'. Ah'm coming now."
She stood up and walked towards the edge of the roof. Grabbing Gambit by the collar, she swooped down into the window to join what she knew would be her last party at the mansion.
Jean had a hard time sleeping that night. Something was amiss. When she rose in the morning and went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and saw Gambit staring at a piece of paper, tears running down his cheeks, she knew exactly what it was.
"She left?"
"Yeah. In de middle of de night. Di'nt even say goodbye...Jeanie? What am I gonna do?"
"She'll come back, Gambit. She always does."
Jean had a sneaking suspicion, however, that her words were not true.
Half an hour away, A young woman boarded a plane, the first commercial airliner she had ever flown in, and hoped that she had done the right thing.