Logan was settled on the floor, back to the wall. Jean hadn't moved much. It felt like they'd been here for hours. They had a bucket in the corner, no food or drink. That was part of the point of this. Logan supposed he'd be let out to eat something at some point, otherwise he'd be pretty useless within a day or so.
Suddenly, Jean stood. She rolled her head as though it was stiff. Well, she had been sitting still for hours, and tense as hell. Then her shoulders, as though she was loosening her body, joint by joint. Logan had never seen her move like that before. She was graceful. Even barefoot in pajamas, she was graceful. She folded at the waist and reached for the floor, then dropped, rolling like a she-cat. That had an effect on him. This was not a time to wind her up.
"You okay?" He asked
She nodded once. "Yeah." She'd stopped crying, there was hardly a sign she ever had been crying in her face or her voice. She settled, lying on her back, arms extended above her head, crossed at the wrist. She looked relaxed, for the first time since he'd brought her in here. "I'm good." She said softly.
,
Scott was still in the infirmary. He'd woken up in there. It was nearly nine AM. Classes were starting. Hank had told him he wasn't to try to teach today, not with two newly broken ribs. Hank would cover his classes. He wasn't sure if he was grateful or not. He didn't want to try to explain to successive classes why he couldn't use his arm, or where Doctor Grey was. But right now he was alone with his thoughts.
Scott usually tried not to use strong pain relief if he could possibly bear not to, but right now he almost wished that Hank had drugged him to insensibility.
She'd attacked him. Right out of the blue, no warning, she'd attacked him. There had been… incidents with The Phoenix before, looking back. Times Jean had acted strangely, or displayed more power than she should have been capable of. Up to now, it had always been at least sort of like her. She'd saved all of their lives at Alkali Lake, that had been like Jean. When she'd forced Mystique, it had been in their interests as X-men, even if it was a blatant abuse of power. During the attack the other day, she'd fought on the right side, she'd seemed to control it perfectly, she'd only hit the attackers, she hadn't marked any of them.
So he had to at least think of the possibility that Jean, not The Phoenix, had meant to attack him. She'd been… she'd not been normal towards him for a while, maybe she wanted out but hadn't dared say. And now she was alone with Logan. Completely unobserved.
Scott checked himself. This was Jean. He loved her. And he knew she loved him.
But he'd known for a while. If he was honest with himself, he'd known Jean was attracted to Logan since the moment he'd turned up, in a way she hadn't been attracted to him for a long time. He'd worried early on, then dismissed it as something Jean would not be capable of. But Jean seemed to be capable of a lot of things lately, forcing Mystique, and keeping this whole thing from him for this many years…
Hang on. The Mystique thing had probably been at least partly The Phoenix, the other thing. But that still didn't answer why she hadn't told him.
She'd sent him away, and now she was alone with Logan. He'd suspected it for ages, he hadn't wanted to, but deep down he'd known he'd never hold her. She'd want-
Scott sat up, grimacing in pain. Being the lover of a mutant whose power only really did anything when they involved another person almost always meant being their guinea pig. He'd been sharing a bed with Jean for nearly ten years. With the result that he knew very well how the influence of a telepath felt.
Jean had thrown him in to a wall like a toddler throwing away a toy it had tired of, sent him away and called Logan to her. He knew what was going on.
Hell. He didn't know that. He didn't even suspect it. Not really. This was Jean. He trusted her.
Yes, he trusted her. And she'd stand him up. She'd run around with Logan behind his back until everyone knew it but him.
Telepathy felt like this. Every breath pulled at his broken ribs now.
Jean was sleeping with Logan.
She was in his head. The Phoenix was in his head.
,
Scott got up. Xavier. He needed Xavier, as fast as he could get to him. If she was in his head, could she force him like Stryker had, like she'd forced Mystique? He needed to get someone to tie his hands so he couldn't take his glasses off. He couldn't afford to go anywhere near The Professor, what if she set him on him?
What was him and what was her? Whose logic was whose? Scott shouted in mixed frustration and fright and pressed his hand to his forehead.
He should go to Xavier. If The Phoenix forced him, nowhere in this mansion would be safe. And if anyone could stop her, Xavier could.
She'd use one of them to kill the other if they were together. But he had to try. He couldn't just stand still and let her take him. He was stubborn.
It took him longer than it should have done to get to The Professor. He burst in without knocking. He was teaching a class. He was risking all their lives too. The Professor looked up at him calmly.
"She's in my head."
"Everyone out." The Professor said. He'd gone very still. He was scared. He didn't think he could hold her. She was going to kill both of them. "Scott, come here." The Professor wheeled himself out from behind his desk. "Facing away from me, out of the window." He didn't think he could stop her. He should just jump out of the window, kill himself before she used him to kill anyone else. No. What the hell? He was going to let The Professor help him. But what if there was no help for him now? Scott set his jaw and knelt down with his back to The Professor.
"I take it I have your permission?" The Professor asked. Scott nodded once. "This is going to be deeply unpleasant."
As soon as The Professor touched him, the attack changed. He could feel everything now, where he ended and she began, The Professor pushing against them hard, and somewhere another echo of a voice. Jean? It had to be.
"I will pull his eyes out. I will pull his burning eyes right out of his head and leave him to bleed."
"So why haven't you?" The Professor asked. "Jean, pull yourself together and help me. We can subdue her."
And she was there, like the sound of her breath. And suddenly Scott could feel how tired she was, how constant The Phoenix's pressure was, why she'd splintered after fighting for so many hours.
"I will turn you to dust, old man. I will tear you apart, piece by piece, you hypocrite."
"Past the rage, Jean. Together, we are stronger than she is."
What came from Jean wasn't words. It was a force, the rawness of her power. She joined with The Professor, then all three of them rolled off him like a wave. Scott broke the surface and gasped, then flinched as the movement shifted the broken ends of his ribs. He felt like he needed to pant for air, but didn't quite dare to. Behind him, The Professor was breathing hard.
"Is she gone?" Scott's voice rang in his ears as though he'd shouted. He turned his head to The Professor.
"I think so." He said. He took a breath, very slowly. "She wants us dead." He let the breath go. "Both of us. So the question remains, why didn't she?"
"I don't know." Scott breathed. "She tried to get me to…"
"But she didn't make you." The Professor straightened. "If she had the capacity to force you, she could have killed both of us, which suggests to me that she can't."
"You think she's weaker than Jean?"
"No, I think she's being weakened by Jean resisting her."
"So as long as Jean's fighting…"
The Professor nodded. "As long as she's able to resist competently, we're alright."
,
Jean yelped. Logan jumped. His claws slid out an inch without his meaning them to. She rolled on to her side and curled up. Suddenly, she was shaking again.
"Jean?"
There was a pause.
"Jean?"
"It's me." She said quietly.
"You okay?"
"Just."
"What happened there?"
"She… she broke past me."
Logan raised his eyebrows. "She didn't do much."
"Not to you."
She didn't seem to want to say any more.
,
It felt like another hour either of them moved again. Someone banged on the door. Jean looked up, Logan got up. Jean drew her knees in to her chest and looked away from the door. Logan went to open it. The new blue guy, Hank, beckoned him through at once and locked the door behind him.
"Eat." He gestured to a stack of toast on a tray on the floor. Logan sat down and started eating. He was hungrier than he'd realized. "How's she been?" Hank asked.
Logan shrugged. "Quiet. She hasn't done much. She said the other one, The Phoenix, had broken out earlier, but…"
"She did." Hank said. "But she attacked with telepathy not telekinesis, so only two people were aware of it." There was a silence. "I'm going to try to drug her so she can't do it again."
Logan looked up at Hank. "That wasn't the plan."
"If she's going to attack like that, even shut up down here, she's still dangerous. Too dangerous to leave her like this."
Logan swallowed. "You think she's going to let you?"
"I don't know. I'm going to try once. Finish your toast."