kiragecko's X-Men
Maybe A Name

by kiragecko

Someone deals with their feelings by pretending they aren't there.

Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been gone all summer to a place where phone calls cost seven dollars a minute and the only way to get out is be float plane. No internet. Unhappy story. Sorry about that.

"Wolverine, what is your name? I can't remember."

She sees in his eyes he wants to tell so she only hesitates a moment. She thinks that she can read his mind most of the time.

"That's 'cause he never tol' ya. Logan. He's Logan."

She grins and darts away, telling herself everything's fine, it takes more then a name to bother her. If she can just find Bobby it will be easy to forget. He's disappeared into the basement again. He doesn't let her come when he does that. She's frustrated, she wanted to forget about Wolvy, the look in his eyes, and the name. She decides to break into the Danger Room. That usually works. They say she's too young to use it and she has to fry a lot of electronics to get in. That means there's usually no safeguards…

Scott's in the Danger Room. He never turns the holographic display on when he works out and she wonders why. You can't see anything without it…

She heads outside, running now. Not that there's any reason to, she's not upset. The forest behind the school isn't much cooler then the lawn. She must be soft from all her time up north. What would it be like to go back home? Would she be able to stand the heat? She shakes the thought away.

Trees make almost as good of targets as the robots in the Danger Room do. Anger melts away as scorch marks decorate the surrounding landscape. She grins again and climbs one of the trees, back flipping from one of the higher branches. This whole place is a giant gymnastic set! She could get a lot of speed from the roof…

"Hi, Wolvy! You lookin' for me?"

A somersault up to the roof turns into a three point landing in front of her partner.

"What's with'a trees?"

"Redecorating. Brown is so cliché. I thought black was a lot more unique."

"Sit."

"Hate sittin'. You sit; I'll hover over your shoulder."

Why'd he have to come? She was having fun. Frustration builds up again and she dances on tiptoe, a wild, spinning dance that collides with several of the blackened trees. She climbs one, monkey style, and hangs in his face.

"Don't remember my name, kid."

"It prob'ly ain't your name. Just the one you told me."

"Don't remember none o' that."

Who cares? It is't important. She hums to herself and pulls up grass, amusing herself by blasting it out of the air. Time passes. She doesn't look at him. Why couldn't Bobby have been there? Wolvy wouldn't be annoying her like this if he was around.

"Can ya tell me?"

"Sure. No problem. About how we met. Right."

Her voice wavers a bit and she winces. He'll have noticed that. He notices everything. She had been planning on lying but she realized she can't. To upset to lie. No, not upset, what's there to be upset about? She glares at the mansion and continues.

"Um… I was at the mall. You must o' seen the explosions, you know? You're suddenly asking all these guards and some police too why they're chasin' me and they say I was stealin' stuff. Gave me a chance to run which you can bet I took.

"I was hanging out by the back entrance 'til all the police left and the mafia jumped on you! There were like thirty guys with guns and I ran out to help you 'cause I was bored and you beat 'em up and I never even saw your claws! Then you said thanks, which was even funnier, don't you think? I laughed and one of the guys said I was dead and you looked a bit worried so I thought maybe I could get a ride to LA. So I looked all scared and begged you to save my life and you totally fell for it. But you weren't headed for LA so I had to keep thinking about reasons for you not to drop me off."

Playing around with him like that was great, she remembers. Why doesn't it work now? Why does she have to care?

"After a while you sorta forgot you were just lettin' me stay 'til the next town and I decided not to get out of the truck in LA and it was kinda fun just wanderin' around. Anyways, that's about it. Ya told me ya was Logan that first day and I said I was Julie and maybe you were lying like I was but you never gave me another one so maybe that's your name."

She's ringing her hands and looking at the ground now but a half smile is also touching her lips as she remembers those couple of weeks of fun.

"What happened?"

She stops. Looks at him for the first time since she started, just a glance, with burning eyes. She's not about to cry, she's not upset, just annoyed with him because this is stupid and she's tired of talking. She grins deliberately and continues, her voice bright and happy. It breaks halfway through but she simply speeds up, the last words coming in a single breath, running together.

"The jerks in the trucks came. They just started shooting you and you pushed me down and they just kept shooting and they were too far away for you to reach 'em and you fell down and they kept shooting. Jerks. Dumped you in a cage in the stupid truck and me in another and that was it."

They both glare at the sky for a while.

"Wraith was there?"

"Yah. Yah, he was. He was!"

"Night time."

"Uh huh."

…

…

"Shootin' didn't stop once we were in the trucks, did it?"

"No."

"They touch you?"

"I don't want to talk about it!"

And she's gone. Or at least she almost is. A hundred meters and then she stops.

"No. They never touched me. Never did nothin'."

"What they do?"

"Nothing!"

"Jubilee…"

"Nothing. All they had to do was look at me and you were on your feet. Then they could start again. Didn't have to hurt me, you were much more fun."

She leaves before she can start crying.

She heads for the Danger Room again, hoping it'll be open now. Then Bobby's beside her, joking like always, and so she grins and laughs at his jokes. They end up breaking in together and run a program way above his level. She rescues him a couple of times and a couple of times he rescues himself, doing things he wasn't sure he could do. They leave, exhausted and laughing at his "trademarked supervillain fighting patter".

Logan is silent at dinner but Jubilee is as bright as ever. An exuberant little girl, almost bouncing in her seat as she waits for the beans. A chance remark turns into yet another good natured argument about whether she's old enough to join the team. She says something to Kitty and bursts out laughing when the phasing mutant jumps and has to ask for the question again. Somehow, despite everyone watching, she manages to nab three desserts. She's so wired they send her to bed early so they can breathe again. Betsy hears her bouncing on her bed far into the night.

She never did cry. There wasn't any reason to. Didn't sleep either. Sleep isn't that important. She rarely gets much anyways. No one will notice. Maybe there'll be a bonfire now with all the dead trees. That would be fun. She wanders to the kitchen for breakfast with a bounce in her step. She's happy. Of course she is.