The next morning, Jubilation was startled awake by the roaring exhaust of a motorcycle. She immediately recognized the sound and knew that it wasn't just any motorcycle, it was Logan's Harley. She threw back her covers and stuck her nose to the massive window that overlooked her bed. Jubilee's room faced the front of the Institute and, standing on her knees on the soft mattress, she could see the driveway that spun around the fountain and stretched to the huge front gates.
Below her, directly in front of the main doors, Jubilee saw the man she was looking for. Logan was straddling his bike, a plume of cigar smoke above his dark hair. Just seeing him, in his brown leather jacket and jeans, looking so serious all of the time, made Jubilee smile. She patted her hand against the glass, and Wolverine looked up at her.
Jubilation waved excitedly. It was hard to see clearly, but it didn't look like Wolverine's expression changed. If anything, his frown seemed to deepen. His thick eyebrows covered his eyes. He took the cigar out of his mouth and started speaking to someone. With the stogie in his hand, Jubilee thought she saw him motion towards her window. Someone stepped forward and looked up. Bright red sunglasses betrayed his identity instantaneously. Stupid Summers, she thought. Still smarting from the results of yesterday's "training," Jubilee flashed Cyclops her tongue yet again.
Scott Summers was wearing his jogging clothes. He'd happened by, finished with his morning exercise, when Logan had been pulling his motorcycle out of the garage towards his single bag of belongings, lying on the concrete near the front steps.
"Leaving so soon?" Scott asked his… Well, he wasn't sure what Wolverine was to him. Teammate, at least. Their relationship had always relied more on mutual respect than any kind of admiration or fondness.
"What's it to ya, One-Eye?" Logan had responded.
"You just got here," Scott said. "And you still haven't fully recovered. There's something wrong with your healing factor, and nobody, not even you, knows what. I think it might be a good idea for you to stay here, rest up a bit, and let Hank run a few more tests. There's a good chance he could help."
"Yeah," Logan said, chewing on his cigar, "There probably is." He paused, inhaled deeply, blew a cloud of noxious smoke into the sky, and cranked the ignition on his bike. Scott frowned at the smell and the ruckus the motorcycle caused.
Scott watched as Logan's attention shifted quickly. He was staring at something high on the face of the Institute. Cyclops saw the older man's face darken with doubt. "Listen," Logan said. "I got my reasons for leavin'. You don't see me cryin' or whinin' for help. I've been through worse."
Scott stepped forward a few steps closer to Wolverine and raised his eyes to the area he'd been looking at. From behind large, red lenses, he saw Jubilee's relatively tiny, excited face in the huge window turn into a scowl. Scott pursed his lips in frustration when the young girl's bright pink tongue flashed at him through the antique glass tempered with hard polymers.
He turned and faced Wolverine. "She won't understand," Scott said. "You should at least tell her goodbye."
Logan placed a cowboy hat on his head and maneuvered his arms through his bag's shoulder straps. "She's a tough kid. Smart, too." He placed his cigar back into his mouth. "She'll be fine. She knows I'll be back."
"Does she?" Scott said, squinting in anger. "She's infatuated with you, Logan. You're her hero, and from what I understand you two have been inseperable since the moment she dragged you off of that burning crucifix."
Logan raised his eyes and gazed at the small frame watching curiously from the window. "Where I'm goin', what I'm goin' to do, no kid needs to see. She'll be safer here."
"Tell her that," Scott pleaded, suddenly struck by the irony that he was giving emotional advice. How far he'd come since the days he couldn't stand to look at Jean for fear he'd blow her away by accident with one of his optic blasts. Or maybe, he thought, it's just easier when it's somebody else who needs to show some consideration. Scott's voice grew stern, and even cracked slightly. "You're going to hurt her."
Logan's eyes shifted to Scott's, and Scott saw the dangerous intensity just behind the man's exterior. Wolverine's lip trembled, fighting a snarl.
Leave it to Logan to resist any order, no matter how well-intentioned, Scott thought to himself.
"Ain't neither one of us good at goodbyes," Logan said. He revved the Harley's engine, and lifted his feet onto the rests. "Try and keep her out of trouble 'till I get back."
With that, Logan chomped onto his cigar and kicked the motorcycle into gear. With the loud screaming of exhaust, Scott watched as the lone figure disappeared through the slowly opening black, metal gates.
Jubilee watched as the two men talked, debating whether she would rather watch him leave or risk running down to say goodbye and missing it entirely. In the end, she knew she wouldn't make it, so she was forced to try and read Logan's lips, an impossibility from this distance, through the frosted glass, even if Jubilee knew how to.
When Logan raised his eyes to look at her a second time, there was something in his expression that sent a chill down her spine. "Oh, no," she said aloud. "He's leaving!" From the anger in his stance, his face, his eyes, there was no mistaking he didn't want to go. Cyclops was making him leave! Jubilee pounded on the window. "No!" she said. "You stuck up, no good, poor excuse of a man!" She started pulling at the base of the window, but it was a futile gesture. The windows weren't designed to open. Her fingers sparkled, and she seriously considered blowing out a pane or two, but held back, too afraid of the consequences.
Wolverine revved the engine and, before Jubilee knew it, he was gone. "NO!" she shouted.
Below her, on the cold concrete, Scott Summers turned and, for just an instant, looked up and saw the pain and surprise in young Jubilation's face. Pained, he quickly stepped towards the door, out of the teenager's view. He pulled back the heavy wooden door, and disappeared into the mansion. Once out of sight, he took off his sweaty shirt and threw it onto the stained wood floor with a slap.
Jubilee saw Cyclops look at her before he walked away like a coward. His face was completely emotionless, and it fueled Jubilee's anger even more. "What's wrong with you, you bastard!" she shouted at him as he meandered out of view. "I hate you, Scott Summers!"
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I am really proud of this chapter. I hope everyone was able to follow it. Thanks for all the kind words on Chapter 1. I just had a very valid question asked, and though I sent a reply to it, I figured I would share my answer with everyone interested in reading it (as it's possibly a common question).
Question: Why was Sabretooth ina training session for Jubilee?
Answer: Okay, bear with me here. This is how I justified Sabs appearance in my mind...
If you'll notice, Scott skipped directly from Beginner Level one, to Intermediate Level one, so there were actually several sessions of training intended to come before Jubilee ever wound up with the Intermediate training in which Sabretooth appeared.
Secondly, Jubilee's goal wasn't to defeat Sabretooth, she was simply supposed to hit him with a paff and make it past him to the finish line. Because Jubilee failed to pay attention to the potential dangers of her target, though, she was unprepared and, hence, caught off guard and captured.
Scott Summers doesn't mess around when he trains.He wanted her to learn something about the possibilities of the unexpected when he designedthe missionfor her. I hope that makes sense.
Thanks again for reading.
