After the Fact 2
A little continuation of "After the Fact." I had somewhat had this in mind for the original, but I didn't want to do a drastic time change at the end just to fit it in.
Jean engages in battle and soon finds out something she herself hadn't quite expected…
I don't own the X-men guys P This is set after X3: The Last Stand.
Personal Note: Wen1, Summers-Spirit, and CykePhoenixSummers, you three are too kind to me. :) I love your reviews, on this story and the others you've read. Thank you!
"Ugh…!" I cried out while staggering over my own two feet and barely managing to keep balanced. My head was spinning dangerously - things began to fade out, and as I went to stroke my burning forehead, my knees buckled beneath me. Logan continuously managed to be there to save the day, of course. Lucky me. He seized me by the arm and kept me from completely crumpling on myself.
"You okay, Jean? That's the second time today," he growled, obviously concerned for the woman who just happened to still have feelings for the man he had considered a rival-at-large.
"No…no I'm fine," I managed to get out. Again I brushed my forehead and winced upon my own instigated contact of a finger of the leather glove on my skin.
"Maybe you should—" Storm interposed, narrowly missing a car that soared through the air and smashed into the gravel a few feet beside our group, "—listen to him Jean! You've—" Another car plunged beside her, "—been looking really pale for the past few days!" She had to shout due to the roaring flame-bursts and the shriek of crunching metal.
I then gave a forced outward sigh and rolled my eyes and grimaced to myself, "I'm fine, thanks." This is when I glanced up and saw Logan still holding onto my arm with a loose grip. I met his eyes and lifted my eyebrows as if to signal to his fingers. Reluctantly the man released my limb, and acted as if it was a mistake that he'd still held on to it. I knew him better. He was only trying to get the upper hand now that Scott wasn't here to glare at him after every little hint of attraction. I hated that, but I hated this even more. Didn't he know that a girl had feelings? "I'm fine-" I repeated, emphasizing each word in an aggravated tone, "-thanks."
That was when Logan gave the slightest twitch of his head and murmured, "Alright. Next time you fall I may not be there." The second was followed with an impish grin, and I rolled my eyes again. However, I would have found the urge to laugh hard to suppress when he flew backwards a good fifty feet, except for the little thing that caused it. Magneto, striding forward, his hand outstretched as if he was royalty and deserved to have his feet kissed.
"Ah, Ms. Grey," he started. His voice, despite the previously comforting childhood memories associated with it, fazed by me, "Where is the Cyclops? I've counted your standings and it seems you are missing one…"
My mouth must have dropped, because the elderly man laughed a moment later. I then blindly snapped my own hand out, primarily hoping it would connect with his jaw, but intending to throw him back with the telekinesis. However, neither was accomplished when his fingers dropped from the invisible hold on Wolverine - I heard him drop to the rocky ground - and wrenched around my wrist, nearly snapping the bone in two. That sent a line of fire through me, and I think he could feel it as well.
"Feisty, are we?" he mused, his hand pulling my own further up as my knees forcibly buckled again. I too dropped to the ground, giving a weak yelp of pain as my knees were thrust into the jagged ground. He looked to me and raised one eyebrow, and then stared at my hand, as if it held a secret and he was ready to reveal something marvelous to the entirety of the world…like unveiling the cure to cancer.
I snapped and my eyes widened simultaneously. No, I thought, panicked, Please… Too late. Rings are made with metal. My eyes fell closed almost guiltily as the former teacher nonchalantly plucked the glove off of my hand, finger by finger, purposely struggling over one finger in particular. He knew, and he'd always known. Finally my bare palm was exposed to the open wind, and it sported a slim band with a miniature diamond embedded into it. My closest friends hadn't known yet, and it had been a year, at least. They'd kill me once this was over.
"Engaged, are we?" Magneto purred, eyeing the ring, and then my expression. He knelt down slightly and lowered his voice, "Not to the Cyclops, I hope."
"What does it matter to you?" I hissed. Apparently that was a bad idea, because the man twisted the arm back so that I had to move in his direction just to stop the burning pain in my shoulder from growing.
He held a studious face for a moment, and then chuckled, "Your blood is a bit high on the pressure scale, my dear." He then smiled and stated, "Pregnant, perhaps?"
That ended it right there. With my free hand I swept his feet from under him, and then grounded him into the gravel. My eyes were edged with fire, my own anger, and I whispered, "There's no way." I contemplated shoving my heel into his neck, but thought better of myself. It probably wouldn't be a good example for the kids, either. I stood to my full height and called to the X-men, younger and older, "Simulation's over."
Storm threw a precautious glance over her shoulder, asking subconsciously, "You sure?" I nodded in response. I was through with everyone being light-footed around me like that. Fortunately no one had seen the ring, and I snatched my glove from the simulation of Magneto.
"Thanks," I snarled before storming out of the spherical room.
---
I paced in the lab. I'm loosing my mind…that's all there is to it. I'm loosing it, I thought, rubbing my forehead as I stopped for mere seconds. Shortly after we'd all unsuited, I dragged Ororo to the side and specifically asked her, "Do we program what the simulations? Like their dialogue?" She shook her head in response, while Logan interjected as he passed by, "No. They hold the person's voice, and have the ability to say anything in any human language." He was being dead serious.
And of course, me, being the paranoid person I am, fled to the infirmary. I had to know the truth; whether my logical reasoning was correct, or rather the simulated Magneto had somehow managed to tell by my blood that I was pregnant…or even if the simulation had just been attempting to inveigle me further.
"It's not possible!" I barked suddenly, replaying the conversation for the millionth time. In all logical means, it wasn't. I obviously didn't look pregnant…no I looked almost the exact way I had when I'd submerged into Alkali Lake. That was nearly six months ago, if I understood correctly. So even if Scott and I had actually had sex six months ago, I would look rather pregnant by now. However, the next problem was the fact that I couldn't exactly remember our last time together. Even still, six months? It made no sense.
Unless… My body had fallen dormant once submitting to the watery depths of the lake. Was it really possible that maybe…just maybe, if I had been supporting a child, that it too would have fallen dormant? And even if a child had done so within my womb, that was certainly not good news, and defiantly not something I particularly wanted to death with. A dormant child? A child that would have been within my body for at least a year before birth? My head was spinning.
Shortly after the Danger Room session, I'd ran to the lab, and that was to find a store-bought pregnancy test. Of course, after using the idiotic thing it had come out positive, just to further entice my anger. Therefore, I'd taken up my doctoral skills and drawn my blood for more valid testing. And here I was: the results sat on the table before me, and I couldn't get myself to even glimpse at them. This is ridiculous, I thought bitterly, Why can't I just look at a damn piece of paper?
I couldn't look because I knew what having a child would mean. Having Scott's child no less, would mean that I would be continuing his bloodline, but that was minor compared to everything else. An unborn baby, likely to be inside a woman's body for well over a year before birth… The logic was no where to be found. However, the one thing that made me jittery was not the dormancy fact, but instead the fact that if this child survived, it would be the first to be spawned from two mutants. Possibilities of successes and disasters were limitless at this point. However, I needed to look at the damn results first.
"Fine…" I breathed, overturning the paper and scanning it at least twice before anything at all started to set in. All the headaches, the nausea, the fainting spells…I thought it had been due to my mutation. It very well could still be partially due to my telepathic mind, pregnancy probably only enhanced the effects.
I sighed. I'm pregnant with Scott's child. It sounded so incredibly fake. The words didn't fit together; not in this time and place. So I whispered, "The first of the Grey-Summers line." My heart leapt in my chest.
Now that I have written this chapter, I may very well merge this with another series I had in mind. o We'll just have to see what I can do to get the two to fit together.