"I kissed him," she murmured. "I kissed John."
She waited for the inevitable reaction of either horror or glee or even a combination of both but neither was forthcoming. All she heard was, "Georgia, stop eating the paste."
"Jubilee, did you hear me?"
"Seriously, why are you eating that? Here, have some yummy Play-Doh instead. So colorful and delicious. Nontoxic too. Now, kids, me and Miss Marie here are gonna go into the supply room and have a nice little chat so be good and, Robbie, no powers. Or I'm going to take all your little toy soldiers and...well, you remember what happened last time, right?"
The little boy with the bright orange hair gave Jubilee a disgruntled look but nodded in agreement.
"Good... David, you're in charge." Then Jubilee took Rogue by the arm and dragged her into the other room.
"Uh, Jubes, was that a good idea? Leaving David in charge? He eats the paste too..." She was cut short from finishing her sentence.
"You did what?! You kiss him?!" Jubilee burst out as she closed the door behind her. "Is this why you acting all skittish all weekend whenever he was around? Ho-lee crap!"
"Will you keep your voice down?"
"Sorry..." Jubilee paused for the briefest of seconds before continuing. "But seriously, girl, what the hell? You gotta give me details here. Where were you guys? Was it good? Did he kiss you back? And why the hell didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Look, I'm embarrassed enough as it is -- I don't know why I'm even telling you this now. It's not exactly like you can keep a secret."
"I resent that. Have I told anybody about your really really really sad attempt to chicken dance at that frat party?"
"Well, let's see: Kitty, Logan, Storm, Peter, Warren..." Rogue was counting down the people on her fingers.
"That's not just anybody. They're...they're family! They don't count."
"...the newspaper boy, that cashier at the 7-11, the hotdog vendor at Penn Station, the cabbie who you decided needed a reenactment..."
Jubilee sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes. "All right! All right! I have a big mouth! Happy now?"
They were both silent for a moment. Jubilee looked at her friend, wondering if Rogue would tell her anything more because she was absolutely dying for information.
This is big. This is bigger than big. What could have possibly possessed her? I knew she had feelings for him but damn... God, she better give me details...she can't leave me hanging here...like she did the last time…damn her...she better tell me...or I'll have to resort to violence...or singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall...
"I couldn't sleep. So I went outside for a little bit. I saw him throwing bread to the fish."
"The koi? Storm's precious precious fish?"
Rogue shrugged. "He looked like he needed something to do. Anyways, so I saw him throwing bread and he turned around and saw me watching him. And...then...I don't know...I just..."
"Kissed him?"
Rogue blushed furiously, looking away from Jubilee.
"Can I...can I ask you something personal?"
"Since when have you started to ask first?"
Jubilee pursed her lips in annoyance. "Well?"
"You can ask. I'm not sure if I'll answer, all right?"
"Fair enough... Remember a long time ago, you started to tell me something...that day after the boys got so ragingly stupidly drunk on Bobby's birthday? Which, by the way, I still have no idea how they got their hands on so much frickin' alcohol... Damn all this secrecy... But, anyways, getting back to my point: something that happened between you and John that night..." Jubilee stopped talking as she saw the stony expression on Rogue's face. Jubilee knew that expression -- it was that expression that said you'll-never-ever-ever-ever-ever-find-out-and-even-when-I'm-dead-and-gone-you'll-still-won't-know-anything.
As the resident busybody, Jubilee was more than curious about what exactly happened that night. She had the feeling that something very intense had occurred between them. It was more than likely too that Rogue was the only one who remembered what had happened considering how much alcohol was consumed that night by those boys. The only comfort she had was that Rogue hadn't told anybody else what happened either, not even Logan. It would have killed her if she knew that somebody else had more information than her, especially that overgrown Sasquatch.
But she couldn't think about that -- Rogue needed her to be comforting!Jubilee, not gossip-hound!Jubilee right now.
"It's not the end of the world, you know? That you kissed him, I mean."
"I know that. It's just..."
"Look, Rogue, it's not the end of the world. Seriously. Come on, I've done stupider things than that. Remember when I used that Sharpie when I ran out of eyeliner? And I couldn't wash it off for weeks? Besides, you're not going to be able to avoid him forever. Maybe the weekend...but I'm pretty sure you're going to have to face him again. I doubt he's going anywhere anytime soon."
"I know."
They were both quiet, lost in their own thoughts.
Then Jubilee nudged Rogue with her shoulder. "So...was it any good? Did you cop a feel too?" Jubilee wriggled her eyebrows at her friend.
"Jubilee!"
"What? You know I love to know these kinds of things! And my own love life sucks so I have live vicariously through you!"
"You know that's seriously messed up, right? Come on. Let's go back to the kids, all right? I'm surprised no one hasn't screamed or yelled yet."
"Just tell me if it was any good!"
Rogue laughed as they walked back into the classroom.
"Miss Marie! Miss Jubilee!" David called out in a nervous sing-songy voice. "Robbie cut Sam! He was playing with the big person scissors! I told him not to but he wouldn't listen!"
"What?" Rogue and Jubilee said together. Their eyes scanned the room to see Sam standing in the corner, holding one of his fingers in his hand, a small trail of blood trickling down his arm.
"We were gone for only a couple of minutes!" Jubilee exclaimed.
"It was an accident!" Robbie yelled out. "I didn't mean to do it! He made me do it!"
"What happened?" Rogue asked, as patiently as possible, even though on the inside she was completely freaking out. She tore some paper towels off from the roll on the table and held Sam's finger tightly between her hands to staunch the bleeding.
"We were just playing... He dared me… Please don't take my soldiers! You said not to use our powers! And I didn't! I swear!" Robbie's bottom lip trembled, looking like he was about to burst out in tears. His five-year-old logic was not lost on the two teachers.
"I better take him to the med lab. He might need some stitches," Rogue said.
"All right." Jubilee was holding Robbie, trying to calm the boy down. A distraction was needed before the whole class started to cry too. "Who wants to help pick out a book for today's reading circle?"
"I do! I do!" everyone, including Robbie who had forgotten all about Sam and his precious toys now, shouted excitedly.
"Come on, Sam," Rogue said, still holding Sam's bleeding finger in her hand.
"But I'm gonna miss reading circle!" he whined.
Rogue gave him an exasperated look before pulling him along by the hand.
--
Oh God, what's he doing here?
When Rogue stepped inside the med lab, the last person she had expected to see was him. And she had been doing such a good job avoiding him.
God really hates me, she thought.
He was standing over a plastic bassinet where Jack was laying, kicking his legs and gurgling in fascination at the fluorescent lights. Maggie was standing next to him, watching as Hank listened to Jack's heart through a stethoscope.
"Uh...hi, guys," she said with false cheer as they all turned to see who had entered the room.
"Rogue! What happened?" Hank asked, putting away the stethoscope and rushing over to them the moment he saw the blood stained paper towels.
"We had a little accident."
"Oh dear..." Hank peeled back the paper towels and took a look at the wound. "It doesn't look like it's too deep. Some rubbing alcohol and a band-aid should do the trick."
Sam winced at the thought of the rubbing alcohol -- he remembered the last time it was administered and how Robbie had howled the moment Dr Grey had dabbed his wounded knee. But then he noticed the other people in the room, particularly the blonde little girl peering behind some guy's legs. Sam straightened and tried to put on his brave face. He didn't want to look like a wimp, especially in front of a girl.
"Sam, why don't you sit down on the chair over there and we'll get this done quickly, all right?"
"I'm not scared!" Sam said proudly.
"Uh, okay... I still need you to sit down, okay?" Hank said, a little confused at Sam's sudden outburst. He watched as Sam sat down and held out his finger, trembling slightly but looking determined as ever.
Rogue bit her lip as Hank dabbed the wound, a grimace forming as she could only imagine the sting the alcohol would bring to the little boy. She was surprised that Sam didn't cry out, just sat there as Hank cleansed the wound and bandaged the finger.
"There you go...good as new! Some of my best work yet! Uh...Sam? Sam?"
The boy had been clenching his teeth so hard, it made an audible sound when he finally released them. "I'm fine! I'm fine! I wasn't scared!"
"Okay," Hank said, a puzzled expression on his face. "Well, Rogue, just make sure he doesn't play with the band-aid and he should be fine."
"Thank you, Hank." She turned to take Sam's hand again so they could walk back to class but was stopped when he called out her name.
"Uh, Rogue! Wait, can I talk to you for a minute? It won't take long. Please?"
She had her back to him. She had to close her eyes as a battle of emotions that played across her face. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Sam looking up at her questioningly.
"Of course," she said, schooling her expression again. "Wait for me here, all right, Sam?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said primly, sitting back down.
John followed her out the sliding doors to the hallway.
They stood there, looking at each other.
God, this is getting repetitive. Hopefully I won't end up kissing him again and then running away like some kind of madwoman.
"Hey..." John started, looking uncomfortable. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to decide how to go about having this conversation. "Uh...look, I've been meaning to ask you something but...well...uh... Sorry...I'm just not sure how to ask you this."
"Just ask me." Why was she talking in such a breathless tone? She coughed slightly to cover up.
"Well...um...you remember how I told you that my wife thought you were...uh...my ex...girlfriend...or something..."
"Yeah..."
"We...uh...weren't...were we? I mean...dating...and...stuff...before...you know..."
"No! I mean...no, of course not!" Rogue forced out a laugh, she hoped he didn't notice there was no humor in it. "What made you think that?"
He looked at her strangely. "Well, that night...by the koi pond... And then the whole avoiding thing you had going on during the weekend..."
"Oh! Right! Sorry about that! I guess I should have explained." She stalled for a second, trying to come up for an explanation on the spot.
Something plausible, something plausible, come on, Rogue, think, think, think! It was a knee-jerk reaction… I'm on medication… I have brain damage… I've been diagnosed as a nymphomaniac…
"You know, where I come from, we do that all the time!" Bravo, Rogue, well done. Even her brain was against her. "Yeah...it's just our way of saying...you know, welcome!" She let out a nervous laugh, hoping against hope that he would buy her explanation.
"Really?"
"Oh yeah...you should see us down in Mississippi. Our state motto is 'we kiss everybody'!" She sounded a little hysterical. Okay, maybe more than a little hysterical. And when did she start talking a mile a minute? It was like Jubilee had taken over her body and was speaking for her.
"So we weren't..."
"We were...I mean, we are friends. You're my friend, John. Just a friend. That's all." She had to bit her lip from saying anything more and making a complete lovesick fool out of herself...again.
He was silent for a moment, looking like he was digesting this information. "I wanted to apologize anyways... I mean, when you guys were showing us around and I made that remark about the whole girlfriend thing... I wasn't sure if I had put my foot in my mouth and I've offended you or something... I wish I could remember things...people..."
She reached out and held his hand. "You will."
He grinned wryly. "It's been ten years...at least, that's what people have been telling me. That's a pretty long time..."
"You will," she said, gripping his hand harder. "You're here. And...and...we're all here too...for you... If you need help, all you need to do is ask."
He looked like he was going to take her up on that offer when the door slid open and Hank popped his head out. "Uh...sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know I'm done with the tests for now. And I think the kids are getting restless so I'm going to take them back upstairs."
"No, no...I'll take them," John said as they all walked back into the room.
"It's quite all right. Actually, I think Sam has a slight crush." Rogue wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't been standing right there but Hank actually giggled...like a schoolgirl. When he spoke again, it was in a very hushed tone. "I was doing my examination on Jack -- a very healthy baby, no worries there, although he did have an inordinate fascination with my fur."
"He likes blue," John said, shrugging slightly.
Hank smiled at the remark. "So I'm doing my examination and I had my back to Sam and Maggie -- they were sitting together by the door -- when I saw one of my beakers flying across the room. I turned around and Sam was trying to look innocent while holding that beaker in his hand. I'm pretty sure he was showing off to your young daughter."
"I was not!" Sam yelled out to them who overheard the entire conversation. Sam's entire face turned a bright shade of red.
"It's all right, Sam," Rogue said, soothingly, even though she was trying to stifle her own laughter. "Why don't you follow Dr McCoy upstairs? He'll take you back to class."
Hank picked up Jack from the bassinet. "Would you liked me to take Jack also? He seems quite content here." Jack was snuggled down in Hank's arms, cooing into his fur. "Such a happy baby..."
"Uh, sure. Maggie, you want to go with them too?" The little girl gave Sam a shy smile then nodded to her father.
"I was not showing off!" Sam muttered under his breath but he looked very glad when Maggie followed them out the door.
"It never ceases to amaze me," John laughed, shaking his head.
"What's that?"
"How kids adapt to everything and anything. One moment she won't leave my side, now she abandons me at the first sight of a boy."
"Well, Sam is a very good catch. He has his own box of 64 crayons."
"Family heirloom, huh?"
Rogue giggled. "They're very good crayons."
They smile, enjoying the moment. It was John who looked away first.
He cleared his throat, looking a little nervous and hesitant again. "Hey, I've been hoping to ask somebody about this. I mean, I would have asked Xavier about it but I don't know...he doesn't seem to be all knowing as he looks. He's given me some basic information but I get the feeling that he isn't being completely honest with me. He still hasn't told me how I even ended up here, at this school. Or what happened to my real parents. Or why the hell he wanted Hank to check over my kids."
"I'm sure he has a good reason..."
John sighed heavily, disappointment clearly written on his face. "Never mind. Let's go back upstairs."
She grabbed his hand again, stopping him from turning away from her. "No, wait. I said I would help you so...tell me. Wh...what is it?"
She watched as he dug around in his pockets, pulling something out for her to see. "Does this mean anything?"
Her eyes widen at the sight of the shark Zippo held in his hand. "You still have it?"
"So...it is mine."
"I think...I think we should talk."