Chapter 13: The Mansion
"Later, bub." Bobby and Hank were talking up ahead of him in the hall; Ororo was being uncharacteristically quiet, no doubt due to Marrow's presence. Logan didn't bother to find out what she was thinking; he had his own things to worry about.
Like Jubilee.
He strode out to the back lawn, where the transport they had taken to the mansion had set down on the basketball court. He tapped on the control panel that extended the loading ramp, and climbed quietly inside.
Jubilee was still asleep where he'd left her, slumped on her side across two of the hard, uncomfortable seats. Logan paused for a moment, watching her sleep. Poor kid, he mused. Looks like she's been through hell.
He started yanking open compartments, inspecting their contents. Two thick woolen blankets, military issue. Good. He draped one over her small body, wincing at the sight of the raw abrasions on her wrists as her sleeve rode up her arm, then left the other blanket folded by the door, to take to Jean for Scott. He then returned to his inspection of the cubbyholes. A spare flightsuit, sized small; also good. Except Jubilee had no underclothing. Hey, it was still something. He pulled the uniform out, left it sitting on a nearby seat as he turned to the next cubbyhole.
This one was a goldmine. A military-issue water canteen; foil packs of food for soldiers in the field, and a first aid kit. He wished he'd thought to look here earlier, when it could have done Scott some good.
He grabbed the canteen and the blanket, hurrying back to the mansion. Ororo was the first person he saw; he handed the blanket to her, told her to give it to Jean for Scott. Then he went to the kitchen, filled the canteen with water, and was heading back out to the plane when he heard the sound of tearing tape. Peering around a doorframe, he saw Ororo and Cecilia opening a dusty box of clothes obviously dug out of the attic, and he stepped into the room.
"Looks like Bastion missed this box in that attic closet," Cecilia said, digging into the box. "Whew. These things are old. Hey, Drake, give that back!" She made a wild grab for something Bobby held, and missed. Logan saw, as Bobby held it up, that the little slip of bright pink lace was feminine underclothing. And it was small. Small enough to fit Jubilee.
Bobby snickered. "I wonder who wore this? Jean?"
"None o' yer business, Ice Boy," Logan growled, snatching the clothing from Bobby's hand. A quick look past the younger man showed the rest of the box's contents were male clothing, so he left carrying just the underclothes. Bobby shrugged and they returned to their perusal of the box's contents.
She was still where he'd left her, but the blanket was slipping off her still form. Logan leaped forward to catch it before it slipped off Jubilee completely, and as he set the canteen and clothing down on the next seat he heard her whisper, "Please…please, I'm so sorry…" Her face was streaming with tears as she croaked, "Please forgive me…I couldn't help it…he hurt me…"
She was having a nightmare. Logan flinched at the anguish in her voice, reached down, and touched her shoulder gently. "Hey. Hey, Jubes, wake up."
"Don't hurt me!" Jubilee sat bolt upright, screaming hoarsely in pain and panic. "Please, for God's sake, don't hurt me, I'm just a—" she broke off as her wide, staring eyes took in Logan's figure next to her. She took a deep, shaky breath, scrubbed her arm across her eyes and tried to wipe away the tears she hoped he wouldn't see. "I'm sorry, Wolvie, are we home yet?" she struggled to a sitting position, then tried to rise to her feet. Her body, still exhausted, got halfway up before her shaking knees dropped her to the seat again.
Logan sat down in the seat next to her; not within her personal space but close enough for her to know she could cry on his shoulder if she needed to. "Yeah, we're home," he said gently. "Been home fer a while. Ya slept through most of the fuss; I figured it'd be better fer ya." He held out the canteen of water. "Drink. It's water."
She snatched the canteen from him and started to gulp it down thirstily. Water. Plain water. Not drugged orange juice, like she'd been getting at the Hulkbuster base. Plain water. She'd never tasted anything so good in her life. "Slowly, now," she heard Logan say. "Drink too much now, you'll upset yer stomach." She ignored him until he finally, firmly, took the canteen away from her. "That's enough for now." He shoved a handful of cloth into her fingers, then followed it up with heavier clothes. "Here. Ain't much, but it'll do."
She opened her hand. Little pink lace panties, and a matching bra; a size too big, but she wasn't going to complain. And in her other hand she held…a dark green military issue flight suit? "Wolvie?" her voice was working much better now, thanks to the water he'd given her. "Where did—what did— Is Scott okay?"
Logan's voice was soft. "He's fine. Change inta them clothes first, get outta that green thing. While yer eatin', we'll talk." He got up, crossing the main compartment of the plane, and stood in the doorway, looking out, carefully avoiding looking at her.
Jubilee almost ripped the seams of the plastic jumpsuit off in her haste to get out of it. After so long of having only this to wear…she kicked it aside in favor of the underclothing, then stopped. "Logan? Shouldn't I shower first?"
Logan gritted his teeth and forced his voice to stay gentle. "Nah. Mansion's practically empty, we ain't even got towels. Shower'll have to wait." Not until after that doctor woman's had a chance to examine ya. I don't like that smell hangin' all over ya…As Jubilee had removed the jumpsuit, he'd caught the unmistakable smell of male bodily fluids that had worked into the material of the jumpsuit. That, and the way she'd backed away from him, her moan of pain when she'd climbed on his back and straddled him…they were pieces to a puzzle that had finally come together. And he didn't like what he thought he was seeing. "Go ahead an' get dressed, now." After a moment he heard the rustle of fabric as she dressed in the unfamiliar underclothes and the flightsuit.
"Done," she said finally, and he turned around The flightsuit was two sizes too big for her, and the weight she'd lost didn't help none, but she looked semi-decent. Then he had to rush across the compartment to catch her as her knees gave out, and he eased her back into the seat she'd fallen asleep in. "Maybe ya better stay there till ya got enough strength ta move around," he said, withdrawing from her as soon as she was seated. After what she must have experienced at the hands of Bastion and his men, he didn't want to trigger a panic attack by his mere presence too close to her. Instead, he got up to rummage in the pile of items he'd taken from the plane's compartments, and came back with the first-aid kit and the emergency field rations. "Here. Eat." She tore into the package hungrily as he opened the first-aid kit and took stock of it's contents.
"Eww." He looked up, to see Jubilee staring at the foil pack in distaste. "What's this suff?"
"Soldiers' field rations. Sorry, Jubilee, it's all we got. Ya oughtta see the mansion," he jerked his thumb behind him at the wall of the plane and the mansion sleeping silently beyond. "Bastion stripped the buildin' o' everything. Ain't nothin' left but the walls, an' one box o' old clothes from the storage attic. We got nothin' back there."
Jubilee hunched her shoulders and went very, very silent and still, and Logan put the first aid kit aside. "What's wrong?"
She twisted her hands in her lap anxiously. He waited patiently. Whatever it was, it was bothering her so much that she'd have to tell him eventually. And she did. "It was my fault." He had to strain to hear her.
"What was your fault?" he frowned. "Jubes, none of this coulda possibly been your fault."
"Yes it was." Jubilee shrank into herself. "I failed. I tried, Wolvie, I really really tried, but it was too much, he hurt me, hurt me really bad, I couldn't…" She burst into tears. "Please, please, forgive me, Logan, oh God, please…"
He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed. "Ain't nothin' in this world I can't fergive ya for, Jubes," he said. "And ain't no way this mess was yer fault either. How could it be?"
"Bastion," Jubilee sniffled, wiping her streaming eyes and nose on her sleeve. "Bastion had me in the base…he kept asking me where you were, where the X-Men's base was…I tried so hard not to tell him, Wolvie, I really really tried…I don't remember telling him anything…but there were times when I was so strung out on his drugs and…and the pain…I could have told him and I don't remember it and it's all my fault you guys were there and Scott got hurt…" She looked up at him with eyes so full of pain and pleading that he had to swallow the lump in his throat.
He dropped to a crouch in front of her as she sat on the chair, bringing his eyes to her level. And even then he had to tilt her chin up until she was looking straight at him. "Jubilee. Listen to me. Whatever happened, however he found out about the mansion, it wasn't your fault. Yer a kid; you couldn't'a resisted him for long. I wouldn't expect ya to. Bastion is ruthless, Jubes; you may have saved yer life by tellin' him what he wanted to know. He'd have killed you if you didn't. I don't blame ya, Jubes; an'; no one else will, either. We know what Bastion's capable of. An' yer still a kid too. Ain't nothin' ta fergive, Jubes, so don't blame yourself."
Jubilee flung her arms around him and started crying, as hard as he'd ever seen her cry, into his shoulder. Heart aching for her, he held her and let her cry herself into exhaustion, until she was limp and he was sure she couldn't possibly have any tears left. He carefully laid her back down across the seats and sat on the floor next to her, taking one wrist in his hand and pushing her sleeve up to examine the marks on her thin wrists. She didn't resist this time; probably too tired. He carefully applied some of the antibiotic cream on her skin around those raw chafe marks, and wrapped some soft white bandaging around the marks And as he did, he steered the topic of conversation down other channels; telling her about their homecoming; about Cecelia, about how she'd held his hand and used his claw to perform the surgery to remove the bio-bomb from Scott's chest. "Damn, Jubes," he commented as he started working on her other wrist. "I ain't never wanted ta see so much'a Slim before, an' I don't ever wanna do that again. An' it was hard on Jeannie, too; she looked damn near ta faintin' after it was all over. But we got the thing out, an' that doctor chased us all outta the room so Scott could get his rest. So I came here ta check up on you."
"But I thought …there was no furniture….in the mansion…" Jubilee yawned sleepily as he pushed up the hem of the flight suit pant and started salving and bandaging the chafe marks he knew would be on her ankles. And he was right; there were.
"There ain't," Logan said grimly. "Scott's sleepin' on a bed o' leaves back there in the mansion. I found a blanket in here an' gave it to Jeannie fer him, but I saved the other one for you." He finished with her ankles and dampened a bit of gauze with water from the canteen, dabbing at the dirty streaks on her face.
Jubilee started to push herself onto one elbow. "Scott can lie down on these seats if he needs it," she began, but Logan waved her back down.
"Ain't necessary. Scott won't fit on these seats. You're smaller, so ya can. Don't worry about it."
"Oh…okay…" Jubilee lay back down, her eyes drifting closed; she'd drunk all that water, and eaten, and now her body was demanding more sleep. And she wasn't inclined to argue; Wolvie was here, and she was safe, and he'd never let anybody hurt her…she half-roused as he slid a hand under her head and tucked a 'pillow' made of scrunched-up spare flight suits, and she mumbled some sort of thanks at him as he pulled the blanket over her as she slid back into sleep.
Logan looked back at her. Damn Bastion. More than anything else right now he wanted to go back there, tear the base apart until he found Bastion, and rip the man apart…but he was needed here. There were too many new kids, and not all of them were trustworthy. Marrow, for instance. And the way she was getting on Ororo's nerves… And Jean needed someone to be strong for her while she was trying to be strong for Scott. And Jubilee…
He headed into the mansion after closing the hatch and making sure no one could enter without waking Jubilee. He wanted to have a quick talk with Jean. Jubilee was still hiding a lot of her trauma, a lot of her painful experiences, and maybe it would be better for her to talk to a woman. He might have asked Ororo…except Marrow was grating on Ororo's nerves and making her so angry Jubilee would pick up on that anger and it might traumatize her even more. He didn't really want to bother Jean; she had to worry about Scott…but Logan was worried about Jubilee, and just asking Jean to talk to Jubilee might help Jean not worry so much about Scott. If only for a little while.
And just talking would help Jubilee.
End notes:
This chapter is set during the latter half of X-Men #70. On page 37, Logan leaves the room where Jean and Scott are, and he says 'later'. I took that as an opportunity to have him check on Jubes, still sleeping on the plane. Everything after that line is mine, not Marvel's, so don't blame them for any of this!
Hang on for the next chapter!
