A/N: Thanks for the feedback...it always helps!
Warnings: Slash- female/female relationships, PG-13
Ruby Slippers: Coffee Anyone?
The two sat in comfortable silence, each sipping a steaming mug of coffee, one heavily sugared with cream and the other with a little bit of milk. Streaks of sunlight had begun to dance across the horizon and the chill morning air was beginning to warm up. Tall evergreens lined the isolated property, hiding it from unwanted visitors. The building itself was a low slung house, thick timbers lining the walls and insulating it from the bitterly cold Canadian winters. Jubilee and Sean sat outside on the porch facing the sunrise, rocking gently on wicker chairs that had been hand carved. Jubilee was one of the few people who knew of Sean's house, let alone its location. Two other people lived there with him, a couple who saw to the basics of the care of the house and grounds, of whom Jubilee both liked and approved of.
After Sean's car accident, he decided to opt for a simpler form of life and moved out into the forests of Canada. Life had proven to be too bitter for the man and he had retired to this small haven.
*It's beautiful here.* Jubilee laid a gently hand on Sean's aging one. His once bright orange hair had turned to a snowy white, the traces of color still evident in his goatee that he still maintained.
He nodded and smiled. Gesturing to the landscape around them, he gave her a questioning glance.
*I needed some time to think. Is it all right if I stay here for a while?*
His trembling hand grasped hers and squeezed it, unable to articulate orally in words. An image of a soft white bedroom appeared to Jubilee and she nodded in agreement. *That sounds wonderful. Can I take your mug in?*
Sean shook his head and patted Jubilee's cheek, motioning her to go inside and rest. The young woman entered the house and after setting down her mug in the sink, she padded down the hallway to the bedroom she used whenever she visited. It was when she had gone to wash her face that she realized how dirty she was, the soot from the explosion covering her arms, legs and face. Her nightshirt was torn to tatters, and her hair was a wild mess of curls and frizz. After a quick shower, she peeked into the closet hoping to find some leftover clothes from her previous visit. Luckily, the closet still had various outfits her size and she put on an oversized T-shirt.
It had been almost two days since she had last slept, the night before the speech making her sleepless. Her limbs burned as she crawled into the soft bed, and she curled into a ball breathing freely at last as she fell asleep.
-in-
Emma stared at the rising sun thoughtfully. Life had never been easy for her, she had never expected it to be anything less. At least after she had spent that wonderful stint in the hellhole known to man as the psych ward at Lakeland Hospital. She never thought about what her life would have been like if she had been loved, nurtured and cared for. In fact it was a matter of pride that she had ascended to the top of the bedraggled pile of humanity when few had. Her methods were far from ethical as Sean had always reminded her, but she had done the most essential thing any human can do, mutant or otherwise. She had survived.
Surviving had a lot less satisfaction then most would care to admit, Emma thought to herself as she sipped the rich, nutty flavors of the coffee she was letting cool in her mug. If Emma had it her way, the Hellions never would have died, Ev would have never had to sacrifice himself for a bunch of adolescent males who didn't care, and the team known as Generation X would have stayed to mature into the adults she knew they were capable of being.
So in the end she survived, removing all traces of herself from their lives, not wanting to intrude on their lives. Her lifetime had been spent watching over them, putting herself second to their needs and never once allowing herself to…
"Survival." Emma whispered to the sunlight now pouring into the room. Crossly rubbing her eyes, she set down the cold mug on the sill turning to look at Anne who had a ghost of a smile on her face. "Haven't you left yet?"
"No." Anne shrugged joined Emma at the window, looking out onto the sparkling city. Nonchalantly Anne asked, "Are you so afraid of being unhappy?"
Emma's lips whitened. "That's hardly the point."
"You have money and power. Your company spans the globe and you're stuck up in that ivory tower afraid to come out."
"Get out of my house." Emma's voice shook in rage as she barely managed to whisper the words. "Get out."
"Fine." Anne gathered up her belongings in the cold silence that now predominated the room . Her hand paused on the door handle and she glanced back at the woman. "I will say one more thing. You have survived. The trick is to figure out if you want to live."
The door quietly shut behind her and Emma glared at the wood engravings as if the elves and nymphs were silently mocking her. "I don't suppose you have any input you'd like to share?"
The creatures remained silent, and Emma pursed her lips thoughtfully. Finally she flung her mug in the sink and started to get dressed muttering under her breath, "Well at least I'll have someone to blame when this blows up in my face."
-in-
It was late afternoon before Jubilee had managed to dip gently into wakefulness, her body sore as she turned to look at her alarm clock.
"It is 4:15."
Jubilee couldn't restrain a sigh as the voice registered in her brain. "Who squealed?"
"Sean was worried about you and contacted me."
"I wasn't aware that you were hooked up with a text phone."
Emma ignored the slightly antagonistic remark and held out a mug of frothy coffee, what she could only assume was cappuccino. "Telepathy has never required anything but another mind."
Jubilee sat up in bed and accepted the mug, refusing to look at Emma. "So what is this about? A wonderful bonding moment where you can say that you accept me for who I am, and that you knew that I was a lesbian all along? A wonderful sentiment but hardly true. As Angelo kindly informed me I issued non of the classic traits associated with the disease of lesbianism; drinking herbal tea, becoming a vegetarian, losing all sense of style and butching out to the max."
"Are you finished?" Emma suppressed a smile as Jubilee sullenly nodded, looking for all the world like she was fourteen again and Emma had just found out who had rigged the sprinklers to shoot out blue dye. "Good. It seems as if we both need to talk. How about I meet you in the library after you've eaten breakfast?"
"Fine." Was Jubilee's terse reply as she watched Emma leave. Once she was sure Emma was at least partially down the hallway, Jubilee opened her mind to Sean who was waiting for her with a patience borne from years of experience.
*What does she want?*
*Perhaps a chance to make things right?* Sean projected an image of Emma battling against terrible and unimaginable foes, all in order to protect her charges.
*I'm not a kid.*
Sean chuckled at the age-old sentiment and indicated that it didn't change the fact that Emma still cared.
*She is just so…* telepathy succeeded where words failed and Jubilee grinned ruefully. *But when is that new?*
*Maybe it's time to change all of that.*
The reply Jubilee sent him was hardly worth paying attention to and he mentally hurried her to get dressed and eat breakfast.
Jubilee glared in the general direction of the office, where Sean was
located. "At least I have someone to blame…"
-in-
Emma was waiting in the large leather armchair in front of the bay window as Jubilee entered the library. It was one of the largest rooms in the house, with books lining the walls from floor to ceiling, each carefully chosen to reflect the owner's taste.
No one spoke until Jubilee seated herself on the window seat, not quite across from the armchair. "So."
"So."
Jubilee stood up exasperated. "Well that was enlightening, thanks. I feel so much closer to you now."
Emma smiled. "Jubilation, did you or did you not want me to see you as an adult? How about we start with you acting like one?"
The younger woman cringed. "Lemme guess, Anne and her big-fat-let-me-help-because-I-know-better routine. I knew Sean wouldn't have squealed."
"Anne did come to talk to me, she seemed to think that I deserved some answers."
"And asking me was out of the question?"
Emma stood up angrily, her cool exterior shot. "Asking you apparently doesn't get any answers. You came out when you were fourteen. Fourteen, Jubilee. For seven years I never knew anything about that part of your life. Everyone knew except me. How the hell am I supposed to get any answers?"
"Well excuse me for thinking that you wouldn't care."
"I killed Adrienne because I cared Jubilee. I murdered my own sister to save the team's life. How much more can I care?"
Pink flushed Jubilee's cheeks. "Care? Bastion kidnaps me and you pretend to care? Thirty-six days under his wonderful attention made me really sure that you and Sean cared. Over a month and you guys never even knew that he had me."
"Bastion never let us know, we had no idea."
"Right, and besides it's not as if you're a mind reader anyway huh?"
"I can't change the past Jubilee. What do you want me to say? You know that I never could get past your shields." Emma collapsed on the chair, bitter that even now she could detect nothing past Jubilee's barriers, despite the heightened emotion.
Jubilee cocked her head and floated in the air, about six inches above the ground. "Do you know what it takes to make latent telepath at my age get her powers? Do you have any idea of the kind of trauma it takes? I always wanted to fly, unfortunately it took Bastion to do it. Kind of funny isn't it? It had me rolling."
"Hilarious. And I do know what it takes Jubilee. You weren't the only one who was a latent telepath. As for the trauma, I'm fully aware of the kind of brutality that unleashes powers like ours. What would you have me do?"
The lamp burst into fragments as Jubilee flung a plasma ball at it in pure frustration. "I want you to acknowledge the fact that you screwed up. That you could have done better with me. That you never cared enough to try. That's what I want you to do."
"I'll admit I screwed up." Emma flared back. "And I probably could have done better with you. But I always cared."
Jubilee laughed, a hollow sound in the room now filled with tension. "Somehow I find that hard to believe."
"I cared, and I still care. You can't expect people to know how you feel when you never share. Bastion hurt you, but you never told us what happened. Every time I asked, you turned me away. I can't protect you or help you if you don't share." Emma stated angrily.
Jubilee chewed her lip thoughtfully. "You want me to share?"
"Yes!"
"Fine, then we do it equally and truthfully okay?"
"Fine."
The younger woman sighed and then shrugged, resigned to several hours of long and arduous questioning over those nightmarish days under Bastion. "You first."
Emma's mouth twitched. "So, who was your first kiss? Sean and I always thought it was Angelo."
-fin-
A/N: More to come soon. Feedback good. Make writer happy. So, what would you guys like to see?