Okay, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for not updating this sooner. I guess stuff got in the way. Anyway, as always, please review, tell me what you think, etc, etc. Hopefully, there won't be as big of a break before the next chapter.

Bobby's first reaction to finding himself shirtless in front of Jubilee was fear. He had faced many dangerous opponents in his years of service with the X-men, including Magneto and Apocalypse, but never had he found himself suppressing the urge to run as strongly as he was at that moment. It wasn't like he had anywhere to go. His own room was occupied, after all. There was also the fact that he was bare-chested. He was sure that the employees of the hotel had seen stranger things than a man without a shirt wandering the floors. However, the lack of shirt revealed the icy patch that was forming on his chest, a sight which would definitely catch the attention of both hotel workers and guests. Bobby really couldn't leave the room, no matter how much he wanted to. But he did not feel ready to face its occupant. Even now, she stared at him, confused.

"What is that?" Jubilee asked, squinting to get a better look. The only light in the room was generated by her paffs, which flickered and sparkled. They cast a strange, shimmering glow on their surroundings.

Jubilee's words pushed Bobby into action, serving to awaken him from the state of shock he had found himself in after she had destroyed his shirt.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he shouted at her, drawing her eyes away from his chest and towards his face. When she didn't answer, he continued, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Jubilee kept quiet, and Bobby, unsure of what else he could say, stopped yelling. He was still angry with her, but her unresponsiveness deflated his reply. He just wasn't sure how much she had figured out, and didn't want to give anything about his condition away. So he settled on just meeting her gaze.

He wasn't sure how long they stood there, just looking at each other, but eventually, Jubilee took a step forward. His stomach fluttered unpleasantly, but he held his stance. He couldn't believe that, just a few days ago, he had wished that someone would find out about his secret. He'd just wanted everything to be like it had been before. Safe. But it wasn't that simple. At the moment, all he felt was terror. Jubilee continued slowly moving forward, and after a few steps, Bobby lost his nerve. He began backing up, until he felt his back touch the door. His eyes widened as he realized that he had no where else to run, while Jubilee came closer and closer.

"Listen, Jubes, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. I shouldn't have been in here anyway. Look, um, if you have a spare shirt or something I can cover up with, I'll just leave. We'll forget this ever happened, okay?" he babbled, raising his arms up to block her view of his icy chest, as well as to keep her from getting any closer. The gesture didn't work.

"What is that?" she asked again, and her voice seemed quieter than usual to him. She slowly reached towards the patch with one hand but he pushed it aside.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. Just some left over ice. I can make it go away if I want". Crap. He hadn't meant to add that last part - wouldn't have, if he hadn't been babbling. But there were a million thoughts racing through his head, and he was panicking. His only hope was that she hadn't caught what he had said, or that she would let it slip.

No such luck. Jubilee frowned and crossed her arms in front of chest. "Fine," she said. "Do it".

"Um…sorry?" he asked, playing dumb. He doubted that it would work, but he had to try. Everything was at risk.

"Make the ice go away," she stated bluntly. Why was she doing this? Did she get some perverse pleasure out of torturing him? Couldn't she see that he didn't want to talk about it? Couldn't she see how much he wanted to keep this hidden? If only he could make the ice go away - the stupid, stupid ice that was the root of so many of his problems.

"Umm…" he began, unsure of what else to say. He couldn't think of a lie good enough to cover his butt. This was it. "Well, um, you see, the thing is, I can't," he finally said, defeated. "But, you know, it's no big deal," he added, hoping to detract from the situation.

"Then why were you trying to hide it?" she asked. He had no answer. Her hand reached for the patch once more, and this time, he didn't try to stop her. What was the use?

"Bobby," she said quietly, her voice tinged with admonition. Somehow, that made the circumstances better for him. She wasn't mad. He didn't know why he was expecting Jubilee to be angry with him, but realizing that she wasn't helped calm his emotions. A little.

"How long has it been there?" she asked, slowly running her fingers over it. He couldn't feel the gesture. He knew, somehow without looking, what her fingers were doing, but it wasn't feeling like anything that he was used to. The sensation was weird.

"Umm, since we fought Black Tom," he admitted, refusing to meet her gaze, although he knew that she had torn her eyes away from his mutation and was now looking at his face. He wondered if his statement had any significance to her. After all, she hadn't been an active member of the X-men when that particular battle had occurred. Had anyone even informed her of the battle, let alone when it had happened?

"And you haven't told anyone?"

"Well, Professor Xavier knows about it. And Annie".

"But no one else," she stated, pausing to give herself time to digest and process everything she was hearing. Then she asked, "Why?"

"I don't know. I just couldn't, you know?" Bobby paused, before continuing. He found that he was having a hard time keeping emotion out of his voice as he spoke. "It's like, maybe if I kept it a secret, if no one knew about it, then it wasn't really happening. Maybe I wasn't turning into this weird walking block of ice that couldn't eat, couldn't breathe, and couldn't even feel. I mean, no one knows what it is or what is going on with me. Just that it's a secondary mutation. But what am I mutating into? I'm just scared that, you know, one day I'm just going to wake up and I won't be human anymore".

Whoa. That was a lot more than he had been intending to say. As usual, once he started talking, he couldn't stop. He always said more than he meant to when he was scared or nervous. And now Jubilee was giving him a concerned look.

"Bobby, you're still human," she said softly, tracing her fingers over the line where the icy part of his chest met the flesh part. Her fingers were cold from the ice and felt strangely nice. Bobby inhaled loudly and looked down at her. Their eyes met and Bobby once again felt his stomach flutter. She was standing close to him, almost inappropriately close. Kissing distance close.

Perhaps coming to the same realization, Jubilee dropped her hand and took a step back, momentarily breaking eye contact. Although the room was dimly illuminated by her paffs, Bobby thought that she was blushing.

"Besides," she continued, "It's not like you're the only one who's ever experienced a secondary mutation. I mean, it's happened to two of your closest friends. Hank-"

"Looks like a big blue kitty cat crossbred with an ape," he interrupted. "He hates what's happened to him".

Jubilee wasn't going to argue with that. "But, he's still Hank," she continued. "And there's Warren. His secondary mutation turned out to be for the best. I mean, just having wings is pretty lame, but the ability to heal. That's amazing".

"Yeah, everything turns out great for Warren. Big surprise," Bobby spat angrily. He knew that it wasn't true, that the man had been through some very tough trials in his life, not the least of which were the loss of his wings and his tenure as a horseman of Apocalypse. But Bobby couldn't help but feel anger towards his longtime friend, whose secondary mutation turned out to be such a wonderful gift, when his own situation was much more dire.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Warren," Jubilee reminded him. Bobby had no appropriate response, so instead remained silent. After a while, Jubilee let out a breath and moved towards the couch, which was located a few feet away from the door. The sofa was beside a table, on which sat the coffeemaker, as well as a lamp that Jubilee turned on. The sofa itself was covered with the girls' luggage, and Jubilee pushed aside a bag to make herself room to sit. Another few moments passed in silence, and then Bobby joined her. She shifted to make room for him, but the luggage took up most of the space, forcing the two of them to sit close together. They just sat there, quietly, each lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Bobby broke the silence. "What were you dreaming about?"

Jubilee hadn't been expecting him to speak, and the question caught her by surprise. "I'm sorry?" she asked, hoping for clarification.

"When I found you," Bobby said, "what were you dreaming about?"

Oh. That. Jubilee didn't need to jog her memory much to remember the nightmare. She'd had it several times since Angelo had died, and she'd experienced similar dreams after the deaths of both Everett and her parents. Nonetheless, she didn't want to share the details of the dream with Bobby, or anyone. She was much more comfortable talking to Bobby about his problems than dissecting any of her own.

"I don't remember," she said, hoping that she sounded convincing enough.

"You were calling Angelo's name out, and you were screaming pretty loudly," he told her.

"I was?" she asked, genuinely surprised. She hadn't realized that she'd actually spoken during her dream. Perhaps it was a good thing that Paige spent so much time in Warren's room.

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"Fine," she said with a shrug, wishing that he would just drop the topic. Once again, she mentally kicked herself for having forgotten her medication back at the mansion.

"It's just that I'm worried about you," he persisted. "I mean, first you've got that weird episode where you fell asleep on me, and now I find out that you have nightmares. I'm not trying to be a nag or anything, but I really think you should go see a doctor. Hank'll be more than happy to help you".

"No, that's okay," she said, not wanting to tell him the truth. She wasn't sure how he'd react to her taking medication for this problem.

"Jubes, I don't think you're taking this seriously enough".

"Bobby, I'm fine," she stated again, feeling her anger rising. Why was he so intent on talking about this?

"How do you know that?" he retorted.

"I just do. I've got this under control already!"

"You've got what under control?" he asked, frowning.

"The nightmares, the tiredness, all of it. I've already got them under control. Tonight was just a slip up," Jubilee told him, almost unaware that she was yelling.

"Great control," Bobby muttered sarcastically. He gave himself a couple of seconds to calm down, before continuing in a composed tone. "So, you do remember having nightmares".

Oops. Caught. "Sometimes," she admitted, looking at the floor. She didn't want her face to give anything away. "They come, they go. Like I said, it's no big. Everyone gets nightmares".

"Yeah," Bobby said slowly, and she felt his gaze on her. She refused to look up. "But here's what I've learned," he continued. "You can bottle stuff up, but it doesn't go away. It just stays in your subconscious, under pressure. Eventually, there's enough pressure, and stuff starts to spill over, especially when you don't expect it. You start seeing spillage in your mood, your work, but especially in your dreams. Because dreams are nothing but a reflection of your subconscious, right? And people like us, people who've seen, done, and experienced lots of sad and horrific things? We get lots of nightmares".

Jubilee's jaw dropped. Bobby's insight was keen. She'd never heard him sound so wise before. Goofy? Always. Mean? Once in a while. Wise? Never. In spite of her qualms, she raised her head to meet his gaze. She found it unsurprisingly focused on her.

"Sounds like you've got some experience with nightmares," she said, both in an effort to deter his questioning and because she was simply curious.

"Tons," he said, attempting to grin and failing. "The first one I remember, after joining the X-men anyway, was right after our first battle with Magneto. In my dream, he killed everyone, except for me. I couldn't stop him, I could barely defend myself".

"Oh. That is kinda scary".

"Nah. That's not the scary part. The scary part is that, since everyone, including Xavier was gone, I had to go back home. Back to the mobs and the bullies and my dad. I couldn't imagine anything scarier, especially after finally getting away and realizing that there was something better out there. That's what made it a nightmare," he finished.

She hadn't expected him to reveal so much, and found herself momentarily speechless, considering his words. Finally, she was able to ask him, "Did you tell anybody?"

"Sort of. I had the dream at least three times. I guess that once, I projected it onto Jean, who's psi-shields weren't really strong yet. She came in to check on me. Not that she could offer more than just words of comfort, but talking about it made me feel better. Or, at least, I never had that particular nightmare again".

Silence once again descended on the duo, during which Jubilee pondered what Bobby had said.

"Bobby?" she asked several minutes later.

"Yeah?"

"I miss Angelo," she said quickly, forcing herself to get it out. Three little words, but so hard to make herself voice them.

"I know you do," he said, kindly. "Are you okay, though?"

"Ye…No," she said, coming to a realization, "No, I'm not okay. I miss him, and I want him back. I don't even know what happened, just that I woke up, far from LA, and he was gone. I don't know why, or how. He didn't do anything, but he's dead. My best friend is dead. Again".

"I miss him. I miss everyone. Ange, Ev, my parents. Everyone's dying and I'm still here. I'm scared. Scared that I might end up alone. Scared that all of this might be my fault, in some messed up way. Scared because I'm worried that something might happen to Wolvie, or Paige, or even you, and I'll have to go through everything again. Heck, according to Bishop, I'm the last X-man. I may have to go through this a lot. And I don't know if I can handle it".

He waited for a while before asking her, "Better?"

She knew that he was referring to her venting her feelings. "A little," she admitted, with a slight pout.

"Good. Besides, you won't," he assured her.

"Won't what?" she asked him.

"Be the last X-man. I'll do you a favor and let your enemies know your weaknesses. They'll do you in pretty quickly after that," he joked. There wasn't anything he could really say to ease her worries, so, in typical Bobby fashion, he was reverting to humor.

"Like you even know any of my weaknesses," she shot back, although with a smile.

"Twinkies," he stated, holding up his hand and counting on his fingers.

"Those are your weak point, not mine," she pointed out.

"Fine. Not Twinkies, but sugar," he continued, "Sugar, shopping, rollerblading, watching TV, and talking on the phone. Plus, you're ticklish".

"Okay, first of all, how's that going to help anyone defeat me. Plus, dude, most of my enemies are your enemies too. How are you going to get near them without getting skewered? And second of all, I'm not ticklish," she responded.

"I've got my ways of getting through to the enemies. And you, my dear, are very, very ticklish".

"Am not".

Bobby grinned in response. He reached forward and tickled her under the chin. As he predicted, Jubilee tried to get away, but there was nowhere to go because of the luggage on the couch. She was trapped, and she began to giggle. Not just because of the tickling. She was laughing at everything, the situation, their problems, them in general. Soon Bobby joined her, and that sat on the couch leaning against each other and laughing like crazy people.

"I'm going to be tickled to death!" she guffawed.

"Hey, I might freeze to death. Or end up in a mixed drink," Bobby laughed in response. It was strange how the mood had changed so suddenly, from somber to jovial, but he wasn't about to protest it. He'd spent so long fretting over the patch of ice on his chest - it was nice to finally laugh about his fears.

"We're so messed up," she said to him, once they'd begun to calm down and she could catch her breath.

"Yeah, we are," he chuckled, looking down at her. "Great, isn't it?"

She smiled in response, looking into his eyes, which were twinkling mischievously. It happened without warning. Looking back, Jubilee wasn't sure who initiated it or why. But one minute, they were sitting there, looking at each other, still laughing at themselves.

And the next minute, Bobby's lips were on hers, and they were kissing.