TURNABOUT CHAPTER 8: HOW THINGS CHANGE: Jean's Point of View

I was a little worried when Ororo confronted Sabretooth. But she handled herself quite well. To our surprise Sabretooth remained passive and calm. After she left the room he sat down and ate his meal in a very calm, civilized manner. He must have been very hungry because of all the healing that his body was going thru. But he has so far eaten with a great deal of old manner finesse. Scott stared at him not moving until Charles called him to drive them to New York City to meet with Logan's son Michael.

"Jean, Charles wants me to take both he and Logan to New York City to meet with Michael Winters. Will you be alright here with him?" Scott said with some venom. Sabretooth only turned and looked slightly amused at Scott's hostility.

"Of course, I'll be fine Scott. He's safely behind the force field, and he seems to be behaving himself. Do drive safely and I'll see you when you get back." I said soothingly. Sabretooth took the silence between Scott and me to mean he could say something to Scott.

"When you see Michael, ask him how his little sister is. That is if you see him. You will know him to be James's son just by looking at him." Sabretooth smiled. It wasn't a malicious smile it was kind of an amused smile.

"Be quiet you!" Scott said angrily. "If you try anything while I'm gone, I will blast you into next year!"

"I believe you've already done that; at Liberty Island. You do remember that don't you? It was a very painful landing and it took me weeks to recover." Sabretooth said. "I bet that is satisfying to you."

"Not really, you're still here." Scott growled. Sabretooth just laughed. It wasn't sinister or mean or self depredating, it was a full blown guffaw of amusement to Scott's reaction to himself.

"Fair enough, Cyclops. I understand why you would not really like Sabretooth. I really don't like Sabretooth myself." He said, taking a drink of milk. Now that was a most interesting statement. It served to tell me something and confuse Scott. I noticed and felt that Scott was going to get into an argument with him so I stopped it before it could start.

"Scott, don't you need to get ready to go to New York City. It's obvious that he wants you to drive to the city in a car and not fly in order to give Logan a chance to acclimate himself to the idea that he has a son." I said to Scott quietly.

"Actually he has several sons and daughters, but who's counting." Sabretooth said suddenly and chuckled.

"All right, I've just had about enough of you!" Scott shouted at Sabretooth.

"Scott, I think you should go now, you're just getting yourself upset and you really shouldn't drive angry. It's a rather tiring drive to New York City." I said, trying to get his attention off of Sabretooth.

"Right, I'm taking Charles and Logan to the big city to see if you can actually tell the truth. For some reason Charles thinks you are. But I don't trust you as far as I can throw you."

"That's probably not too far, I gather. I am rather large and hefty; the adamantium mostly, although I'm not exactly petite without it either." Sabretooth grinned easily and Scott just growled and stalked out without even saying good-bye to me.

"Did you really have to make him mad?" I asked Sabretooth.

"I didn't make him mad, he already was. I just gave him an excuse to lose his temper. But you knew that, you're a telepath." He gave me a knowing look. I frowned at him, he was of course right. Scott was already angry at Sabretooth and at Logan besides. Those two couldn't see eye to eye on anything…except Sabretooth. He finished his steak and vegetables and took his piece of cake and the last of the milk to the bed. He sits on the bed and lounge with one leg propped up and eats the chocolate cake slowly and deliberately. I could actually hear and feel him purring from where I was watching.

After an hour or so of doing paper work and Sabretooth had long finished his meal, I heard him sigh loudly.

"What is wrong, Sabretooth?" I asked.

"What is wrong is I have tried to tell you that I want to be called Victor or Vic, not Sabretooth. And another thing, I'm bored. My healing nearly finished. How about something to read? I wouldn't mind some Kipling or Auel's Earth Children series or even the new Harry Potter book…a magazine even, just something; a deck of cards, perhaps?" He said, sighing.

"Harry Potter!" I exclaimed.

"Sounds good, when do I get a copy? Hardback if you don't mind, the paperbacks are hard for me to hold.

"I'll see if I can find a free one, if I can't will the Earth Children series be good enough?" I asked.

"Excellent." He replied enthused.

"I'll be back shortly. Don't go anywhere." I told him. He laughed at that.

"I wasn't planning too, no where to go anyway if I could get out. The food's good, and the company's not bad either. If you tell Cyclops that he'll be tempted to blast me again so don't." He winked at me. For someone of this size and stature and reputation he had a surprisingly pleasant and gentle voice.

I left the lower levels and went on a search for the books in question. I knew that the school library had copies of all the series and books he'd mentioned. Harry Potter, the man read Harry Potter, who would have thought that!!

I checked with the library. All the copies were checked out and I had gotten the names of those who had them now. I decided to go and ask Jubilee if she wouldn't mind giving up her copy of the Harry Potter book.

"You're joking! Get out! You mean big and hairy-scary wants to read Harry Potter!?" Jubilee exclaimed. I didn't know she could even hit that note.

"Yes, he does. Do you think it would be alright for him to have it for a while? He's going to be stuck in that cell for sometime and it would be best for everyone that he's not too bored." Jubilee wrinkled her nose and squinted.

"You're right, Ms Grey. I think I can forgo the trials of the young wizard for a little while. I'll go get it." Jubilee said calmly. She went into her room and emerged with the book. "Listen, you'll like make sure he doesn't damage it, because it's still out in my name…right?"

"I'm sure he'll just read it Jubilee. He doesn't really seem to be very angry or hostile right now." I said assuredly.

"Tell him not to take toooo long; I'm like not finished with it yet." Jubilee said.

"Alright Jubilee." I took the book down to the lower levels with me and wonder just how I was supposed to get it to him without a jail break of some kind.

Well I needn't worry he moved to the back of the cell against the wall and waited for me to turn of the force field. So with little care I turned it off and instead of going in, I tossed him the book, which he caught it… quick as a cat. I turned on the force field and watched him as he looked at the book. His face glowed like on of the students does when holding a Harry Potter book.

"Thank you, thank you. Ha! Ha!" He went over to the bed and sat on it and propped himself to a sitting position to read. "Oh, I see that the student is a girl, and likes to eat Cheetoes while reading. And it has a bookmark in it. Well, I'll do my best not to lose her place. Tell her thanks for giving up her turn with the book. You know, your students have been rather kind to me. I will have to repay them for their kindness." He said softly and started reading. I was impressed on how things change.