Summery: Jubilee gets Paige into trouble.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Nope not mine, they belong to Marvel
Comments: This has been sitting on my computer for a while, actually a long while and I wasn't doing anything with it so I thought I better release it into the wild.
Double Trouble
The two girls sat in hard chairs across the desk from him. Jubilee was doing a good job of pretending to not be scared. Paige, on the other hand, was not doing quite as well. The girl looked calm but every now and then she would steel nervous glances at her coconspirator and shift nervously in her chair. Jubilee, though, sat calmly and never diverted her eyes from him.
Col. Fury was furious; he glared down at the two teens and was further infuriated by Jubilee for her stubborn refusal to show emotion. The three sat in silence for sometime waiting for someone to break.
Fury's secretary opened the door and walked across the makeshift office and laid a file on the desk, everyone but Paige ignored him.
He smiled at the girl. "Aren't these two of the most stubborn people you ever met?"
"Is that all Mr. Smith?" Fury raised his eyes to the secretary. Smith quickly left the room. He returned to his workstation worried about how his boss would deal with the girls.
Inside the office the tension had been interrupted and Fury finally diverted his attention to the file. He opened it slowly and read silently. "This is the mission," he spoke slowly and deliberately to let every word sink in, "you two interrupted." Paige swallowed, Jubilee continued to focus on Fury. "Six months work went into this morning." He continued reading. "And thanks to your interference we have to start all over." Paige looked at her shoes; she was ashamed of what happened. " Six months and 2.5 million dollars." He closed the folder, folded his hands over it and looked at them. "Isn't Mr. Casidy and Mss. Frost suppose to keep you two out of trouble, where are they? Do they have any idea what you two were up to this morning?"
Paige opened her mouth to say something but quickly had second thoughts and closed it and sank back down into her chair. Jubilee kept her eyes fixed on Fury.
"I don't think Cassidy and Frost are doing an adequate job. What do you think Miss. Lee?" she didn't answer, but then again he didn't expect her to. Furry looked thoughtful for a moment. He turned his attention to Paige. "Perhaps a phone call to you mother?" Her eyes got real wide, now she was truly scared. "No, no we don't want to worry her, I'm sure she has enough to do without worrying about what kind of trouble you are getting into at school. I know, we'll call your brother." He smiled at the idea. "What do you think, Jubilation? Is that a good idea?" she still refused to register any emotion. "Perhaps Logan is there too." Jub just kept her stare level with the Colonel.
He picked up the phone and placed it in the middle of his desk and spoke into the receiver. He then hung up and returned his attention to the girls. After a couple of minuets the phone rang. Furry smiled and turned on the speaker. "Hello there," his tone was pretend friendly, but no one really made many social calls to the number.
"Greetings and salutations," Hank had answered the phone.
"Afternoon Dr. McCoy."
"Ah! Col. No it's quite early here. Good morning sir. How may I be of service." The sound of a familiar voice over the speaker relaxed Paige.
"What's up Doc?" Jubilee blurted out in a bad Bugs Bunny voice and grinned from ear to ear.
"Jubilation!" he replied excitedly. "How are you? Where are you? What did you do?" In a single breath he fired off his questions and went from happy to here her voice to worried.
"That's why I called Doctor."
"Whatever it is she is too young to be held accountable? Is she all right? J. are you all right? Who is with you? Where are Sean and Emma?" he fired off the second list of questions without giving anyone a chance to reply again.
"Hank, Hank clam down she's all right." Furry was finally able to get in a word. "I found both her and the Gunthry girl. I need to talk to Logan and Cannonball. I don't think their teachers are getting though to them."
"Of course, yes. Jest a minuet. I'll go track them down for you."
"Hey Nick," a gruff voice came over the speaker after a short time. "What's going on?"
"Jubilation would you like to explain?"
"Wolvie, I'm sorry." Her eyes teared up. "I didn't mean to get in trouble. We were just trying to help some people get home."
"I know Darlin'. You be a good girl for Nick until I get there and sort this out, ok."
"Ok Wolvie."
"Nick what the hell is going on there?"
"Long story, but in twenty minutes these two destroyed six months work."
"That long, Paige must be having a good influence on her," he mused to himself.
"How fast can you get to Uzbakistan?"
"What the hell are they doing in Uzbekistan?"
A new voice cam on over the speaker, "Sir, is Paige alright?"
"Yes, she's actually being good."
"Logan wait up! I'm on my way." Over the speaker they could hear the phone fall and the sound of someone running. At the press of a button Furry ended the call. Tears streaked Jubilee's face making her look younger.
Furry got up from his chair and walked to the door "Come on," it came out as a request rather then an order.
They walked through the outer office and past the secretary. Furry let them trough a series of halls in the clay brick building. He stopped at an arched door and gestured them in.
"Just stay put until they get here."
"Yes Sir."
"Yes Sir," their voices were quiet.
The brick walls of the room were covered with what was once a very tasteful mix of plaster and tile. Whoever once owned the house was quite wealthy, now though, the room was decaying rapidly. The walls were mapped with cracks and the tiles strew across the floor equaled the number still glued to the walls.
"This was the best he could come up with," Jubilee said with disgust.
Paige ignored her and continued with her examination of the room. She stuck her head out of the window and looked down at the courtyard bellow.
"So now what?"
"Oh, No! You heard Logan and Furry. We stay put." Jubilee rolled her eyes at her friend. "We're already in enough trouble."
"Yea, and I know a way to get out of being punished."
"I don't want to here it. If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."
"You didn't have to come along."
"Yes I did. You know your not allowed to go out alone."
"Geeze, one small explosion and your condemned for life."
"A city block wasn't a small explosion. And besides I was talking about last month and the FOH rally. You remember! THE ONE YOU ATTENDED!"
"NO ONE GOT HURT!" there was a rap at the door, they both ignored it.
"Some one could have been!" Jubilee huffed and rolled her eyes. Someone nearly got hurt, her. But she knew better then to say anything, she'd end up confined to her room.
"Excuse me," the special ops soldier interrupted the argument between the two girls.
"WHAT!" they turned to him in unison.
"Can I get either of you anything?"
"NO!"
"A DECK OF CARDS!"
They both yelled at the same time and soldier had to take a step back.
"Of course." He turned and left quickly.
"You don't understand Paige, I have to try to escape."
"I'm not going to let you." Their voices were much calmer.
"I have to. If I don't I'll be in even more trouble."
"You can't be in any more trouble then you are now."
"You don't got Wolvie to deal with."
"Yea right, what's he going to do. Give you a hug and take you shopping."
"You have no clue." Paige tried to ignore her friend but she knew that there would be no talking her out of what ever she was up to.
"What's that suppose to mean."
"Nothing."
"Jub." Jubilee looked at her friend.
"OK. Wolvie won't be mad for what I did or that nearly got us killed, well he'll care about that. He will care that I got caught though. But I can at least get out of trouble with him if I try to escape." She looked hopefully up at her friend.
"Escape! Are you nuts?"
"Keep your voice down."
"Your crazy. J. this is a SHIELD instillation. Even if I agreed to go along with this, which I would not, this is SHIELD. There is no way out. We'd get caught for sure." Jubilee looked unsure for the first time that day.
"I'm not crazy, it's just that you don't know him like I do. He'll punish me. And it'll be intense."
"You should be worried about punishment."
"No Paige, you don't get it. He'll train me. More then ever." Paige felt no pity for her friend. "Besides," a wicked smile played across her face; "I said try."
"What!" just then the door creaked open, both girls turned to see the soldier had returned with Jubilee's cards.
"So, what do you girls want to play." He asked a little unsure.
"Come on girl lets play some cards."
"You cheat."
"I do not," Jubilee looking indignant at the suggestion.
"What would you ladies like to play?"
"Umm," Jubilee bit her bottom lip. "How about poker?" Paige shook her head and mumbled something under her breath. "What'd you say?"
"I said you don't know how to play."
"So I thought he'd teach me, wouldn't you," Jubilee looked up at him with her cutest look she could come up with. "Besides you can't play either." She walked over to a beat up table in the middle of the room and sat down, the soldier followed.
"I can so."
"Since when."
"Since always, My dad taught me."
"Right," Jubilee rolled her eyes. "And I suppose you won all the time."
"As a matter of fact, I'm a very good player." She sat down at the table.
"Right," she sounded as if she only half believed her friend. The soldier looked up to see the two girls staring icicles at each other.
"Do you both know the rules?" The question was innocent. They both nodded their heads in unison.
"A friend taught me." Jubilee replied.
He had a feeling that it was going to be a long afternoon.
"I forget though, how many cards do we need?" Jubilee asked innocently. Paige had won the cut and was shuffling; she murmured something under her breath that no one heard.
"Well sweetie that depends on what we want to play. How about if we play with five."
"OK"
After about an hour the man noticed that something was amiss, he began to realize that there was more to these girls then he first thought. For example they both knew how to play poker, in fact they were both very good. The white girl was better, but the other wasn't that bad either. He was losing more then he was winning. The soldier came to the realization that he was being taken by a couple of girls that weren't even old enough to drive.
"Are you girls hungry?"
"Umm, no. I'm fine."
"I'm not hungry but I could use something to drink."
"I'll be right back." he was relieved to get out of the game before he lost much more money.
"He caught on." Paige sat back in her chair.
"Yea, Duh P. His bets got a lot smaller. So you in or what."
"No." Jubilee got up and pressed herself flat against the wall near the door. "I suppose I can't talk you out of this can I?
"Nope. Shh, I hear someone coming." Paige sat there and wondered if Penny would mind if she roomed with her.
"Well, what ever. I'm out of here." Paige sat alone at the table trying to decide what to do. Jub came off as the most irresponsible person in the world, often acting younger then she really was. But afterwards, when you had time to think about what ever she had just done you realize that she knew exactly what she was doing, she had known the consequences and the outcome. And she had a reason for doing whatever it was that she did, a good one, and that it worked out for the best. Like those people this morning. Yea, she had nearly gotten them killed but she had saved their lives, helped them get to safety, out of the way of the fighting. Because of Jubilee's recklessness people were safe. And that was what was most infuriating about her, she tended to be right.
The door swung open and the young soldier walked in and looked up at Paige. Jubilee came up behind him and struck. The glass dropped and the man fell to his knees. Without truly realizing what she was doing, Paige hit him a second time.
Jubilee looked up at her friend and Paige just shrugged her shoulders "What?"
The two quickly fell into harmony. They slipped out the door and down the hall. They were small enough to fit themselves in dark corners along the halls and were thus able to make their way out without further confrontation. Once in the main yard they crouched behind some equipment pilled up and paused. The edges of the yard were filled with equipment and crates, while the center was clear of debris.
"Now what?" Paige whispered.
"I don't know, you're the leader."
"Not of this mess." Paige said rolling her eyes.
"Look." Jub pointed to a black dot in the sky quickly getting bigger. Paige looked up at a black dot in the sky and then longingly back at the door they had just come out of.
The plane circled the compound twice before landing in the middle of the courtyard. The door opened and three men descended the ramp. They didn't look happy to be there. The short one stopped and sniffed the air and turned and looked in their direction. He shook his head and continued into the building with the others.
"I've just had a idea."
"Not another one."
"Shh. Come on." Paige followed, trying to figure out how she got into this mess. They skirted the edge of the yard until they were directly across from the ramp.
"Now" without any more warning Jubilee grabbed Paige's arm and bolted across the yard, they made it up the ramp and into the plane unnoticed.
"So now what?" Paige was exasperated with her friend.
"We wait for the yelling to start." Jub said with a grin.
"What! You said we'd get out of trouble."
"No, I said I'd get out of trouble with Wolvie." Paige sat in a chair in defeat.