Chapter 7: Xavier

Logan heard footsteps approaching, and turned around, expecting to see Jubilee. This was the last day of work on his bike; tomorrow they'd start on hers. She had approached him after breakfast about getting to work early; he'd put her off until after lunch (last night with Remy and Jubes at the bar had been a little rough.) It was with a bit of surprise, then, when he saw Scott striding purposefully into the garage. "Where's Jubes?"

"She's inside." Scott sat down on the front bumper of a nearby car and folded his arms, looking at Logan seriously. "Logan, I've been meaning to talk to you."

Logan curled his fingers a little tighter around the wrench. Every time Scott got that 'we have to talk' tone in his voice, it meant 'I'm doing the talking, and you're going to do the listening and obeying.' Instead of saying what he really thought (it wouldn't have been particularly nice) he opted for a noncommittal grunt and didn't look up.

"It's about Jubilee—"

Uh oh. Logan kept the expression on his face carefully neutral.

"—we don't think that hanging around with you is a very good thing. She had a hangover this morning, did you know that?"

No. He hadn't. She'd seemed fine this morning. However, as he'd watched her try to drink Remy under the table last night, a hangover had been one of the things he knew she'd wake up with this morning. After this, she wouldn't try doing that again; he was certain. It was one of those things he knew someone would have to learn the hard way. And with Jubilee, as hardheaded as she was, if he'd tried just telling her not to do it, she'd be all the more determined to do the exact opposite. It was just the way she was. At least she'd done it in front of him and Remy, both experienced drinkers. They knew when she'd had enough, and kept her from suffering anything worse than a hangover.

"So?"

"So—" and here Scott paused for dramatic effect, "we don't think this was the wisest thing she's ever done. I don't think she would have gone out and gotten that drunk if it hadn't been for you and Remy. She's a little too old to be grounded, and she didn't take too kindly to being told not to go out drinking, so I decided to appeal to your sense of honor. Don't take her to any more bars, no matter how much she begs."

"Whoa." Logan put the wrench down and stood up. "Look, Cyke. Yer sayin' I oughtta tell her where she can or can't go, what she can do, an' treat her as if she was thirteen again? Do you honestly think that's gonna work? Since when did she ever do what one o' us told her?"

"She listens to you."

"Since when?" came a challenging voice. Both men turned, and saw Jubilee standing in the garage doorway, her fists on her hips. "Since when do I listen to what Logan says…or what Scott says? When did the two of you become my bosses?' she studied them both, fire crackling in her blue eyes, and finally settled her gaze on Scott. "This was all your idea. Emma and you have been ambushing me over the last couple of days trying to tell me that hanging with Logan is the wrong thing for me to do. Well, I have news for you; if you think I'm going to stop hanging around with my best friend you have another think coming!" Her voice had risen steadily during the last couple of sentences, until she was shouting at the top of her lungs.

"And I'll tell you something!" Scott was shouting now too. "You are a member of the team, and you have a responsibility to keep yourself in condition so as not to become a liability to us in a battle! If you have a hangover it will impair your ability to function, and that could put us all in danger! You're not a little girl anymore, grow up!"

Jubilee turned a bright pink. "In case you haven't noticed, I am grown up!" she yelled. "I know what my responsibilities are! Do you think if I thought I would be a liability to you I would include myself in a mission? Huh? You think I'd deliberately put all of you in a position like that? You don't know me, Scott; you haven't even realized I'm not thirteen anymore! You don't know what I can, or can't, do anymore. Don't make assumptions. And as for Logan dragging me out…I invited myself, so it wasn't his fault. Get off his back!"

"My, my," came a calm voice from behind all of them. Logan whirled, followed by Scott and Jubilee. Hank stood behind them, accompanied by Charles in the motorized wheelchair they used for going out. Hank was looking at Scott and Jubilee with a look of consternation. "Might I point out to both of you that shouting at each other in this manner is not conducive to anyone believing that either one of you are much past adolescence?"

"I'm adolescent?" Scott practically sputtered. "Hey, where do you get off telling me I'm acting young, Hank? Jubilee's the one who's endangering us all with her juvenile antics and refusal to grow up!" Logan had to bite his lip. Hank was right; with the way Scott was sounding now, he sounded not much older than he was accusing Jubilee of being.

"Perhaps we would be much more comfortable discussing this in my study?" Xavier said mildly. "My trip can be postponed, Hank. Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this, shall we?" he gestured to Scott and Jubilee. But when Logan made a motion to follow, Xavier shook his head. "You are obviously involved in something at the moment," he said, indicating the grease smears on Logan's jeans. "Please, continue with what you were doing."

Xavier sat behind his desk, hands steepled before him, regarding the two people in front of his desk.

Jubilee, when she was angry, got flushed. It was the one thing that hadn't changed. What had changed, however, was the way she handled that anger. No longer did her pyrotechnics explode whatever she touched; she had gained that much control over her powers. Still, Xavier could almost see the glowing blue sparks in her eyes.

Scott suddenly seemed older to Xavier, next to Jubilee's youthful energy. The team leader was sputtering, spitting out words as fast as he could, trying to get what he was trying to say out over Jubilee's interruptions.

"Scott," he said quietly but firmly, his hand held for silence. Both Jubilee and Scott stopped yelling at each other and stared at him. He smiled to himself. Scott had, in the past, acted more like Jubilee's big brother; some things didn't change. "Jubilee, while I understand you are old enough to make your own choices, and deal with their consequences, Scott does have a point. A hangover could imperil the team if you go on a mission with one." Jubilee was about to interrupt, but Xavier held up a warning hand. "Let me finish. Scott, Jubilee is old enough to drink, now, but she is also mature enough to take responsibility for her actions. I do not believe that she would put the team in danger because of it. But," he said, turning to Jubilee, "I will have to ask you to temper your alcohol consumption, Jubilee. And a bar which Remy and Logan frequents is hardly the right place for you—"

"Hey!" Logan said indignantly from the doorway, which he was just entering. They had left the door open, and he'd gone to change his clothes before he went to defend Jubilee from Scott in front of Charles. "Ain't nothin' wrong with the kinda places I go to…"

"Maybe not for you," Scott shot back. "But a redneck bar is hardly a decent place for a young girl like Jubilee to be in! And with you and Remy egging her on last night, encouraging her to drink more and more, you're not fit company for her either! If either you or Remy had any sense at all, you'd see that! And that's why I'm prohibiting Jubilee from going out at night with you two!"

There was silence for just the barest minute, then Logan spun around on his heel and stormed out of the room. Jubilee gave Scott a look that would have fried him instantly if she'd been gifted with his optic blasts, and turned to Xavier. "It was my choice to go last night," she told him levelly. "Remy and Logan didn't want me tagging along; I followed them. It was my decision to drink as much as I did. If anything, having Remy and Logan there kept me from drinking too much and making myself really sick."

Xavier looked at Scott. "Scott, as desirous as you are of keeping Jubilee safe, I don't see that forbidding her Logan's company will do anything but create trouble. Logan's one goal has always been her safety; she's the most important person in his life. If anything, she should spend more time with him; he can teach her a lot about caution and temperance."

The last part of Xavier's sentence went unheard by Jubilee. Fortunate, or Xavier would have gotten an earful about the 'caution and temperance' thing. "Wolvie…I'm the most important person in his life?" she asked, staring at Xavier with wide eyes.

Xavier looked at her soberly. "More than you could ever guess," he said. "He cares about you, deeply. He doesn't let it show most of the time…but you are."

Jubilee got up and rushed out of the room.

He wasn't in his room. He wasn't in the Rec Room, where Remy and Rogue were playing pool. She tried unsuccessfully to find Emma to pinpoint Logan's location, and finally, frustrated, wandered out to the garage. And that was where she found him, tightening the last few bolts on his bike. He was wearing his black leather jacket, and his old duffel bag was strapped to the back of his bike next to two bulging saddlebags.

"Wolvie?" she asked. "Can I talk to you?"

Logan pushed off the floor with a grunt and tossed the wrench in his toolbox. "Don't even bother, darlin'," he said gruffly, swinging astride the bike. "I heard what Chuck said to ya both. He don't want me hangin' round ya neither. Well, kinda hard not ta, we live in the same damn place, but if that's the way everybody feels, I ain't gonna stick around." He revved up the bike, ignoring Jubilee's 'Logan, please!' She put a hand on the handlebars to try and stop him, but he pushed her hand away and roared out of the garage.

Jubilee stared after him, anguished, then ran back inside and up to her room. Grabbing her own helmet and her coat, she then ran back out to the garage and retrieved her own bike. It wasn't totally fixed; Logan had showed her only cursory repairs, figuring he'd have time to show her how to do a proper job later. The bike was rideable…just barely.

She hauled it out of its accustomed spot in the garage and revved it up. It sounded a bit balky, without the throaty roar it usually had…but she didn't care right now, she had to catch up to Logan. She peeled out of the garage and headed down the road he'd chosen.