I realy want to apologise for taking so long to update (this heat and my summerjob is killing me!). But how interesting can it be from now on? I let Pyro survive, and that was it for the excitment...

The next morning it was Christmas, but that didn't even cross the minds of four young mutants, that now were staying in their respective rooms, trying not to listen to the happy calls of children, the rustling of ribbons and beautiful wrappings being ripped into pieces to reveal a gift inside.

Jubilee lay in her bed, staring up at the roof, at one of the pictures she had put up there. All of the walls inside were decorated with posters and other fun stuff, but the roof was an area for pictures she had taken herself. Photographs covered the part right over her head when she was asleep, and now she concentrated on the one to the right. A sort of gang-thing, where almost all of them were waving and smiling into the camera. That day Kitty and she had dragged most of their favourite people down to the mall. They had eaten there, done a bit of shopping and the watched a movie. Now it was the moment when they got out; Jubilee had ran a bit ahead and taken one picture when no one was aware of it. This one came right after, when they all smiled at being caught in the moment. One person in particular was interesting to her this morning; to the left was John, sticking his toung out, still carrying his popcorn-bag. He had refused to have anything smaller than the middle-sized bag, but then he discovered it was made for two people and that he had no chance to eat it all himself. Instead of sharing it he had carried it all the way home (while complaining about his stomach-ace) and the morning after he put it on the door to the classroom. It was the oldest trick in the history, but Storm had still fallen for it. Since no one had given him away when she asked who it was that did it he'd gotten away with it to.

Smiling, Jubilee tried to take a breath, but hiccupped in the middle of it; she was crying again, her tears falling down the sides if her face, watering her hair.

She sat up as she realised something; they had refused to move Warren before, and he never came to the Professors office yesterday. Did that mean that he still was in there, in the room where they were about to kill Pyro? Just because he was sick, would they force him to watch?! She'd have none of this!

Still wearing her pyjamas Jubilee jumped out of her bed, throwing her covers on the floor. She then opened the door and ran down the corridor, towards the stair to get to the investigation-room. She felt the Professor pick on her mind to ask her what she was up to, and in her mind she kicked him.

That actually made him go away, but also resulted in that she ran into someone when she reached the end of the corridor. A strong hand caught her before she fell, and she looked up to se Colossus stand there, dressed and ready. She didn't need to ask, it was obvious where he was going, so instead of running she walked beside him.

They took the elevator and entered the white, cold-looking floor where they would find the right door.

Jubilee reached out her hand to open it, and took a deep breath (not to steady herself but to keep the sadness and doubts away) before she pushed the button beside it. A soft 'swoosh' could be heard and the blank piece of steel in front of them moved aside, going inside the wall.

The first thing they noticed was that it was dark. The room only had a soft, shaded, flickering glow over it, as if…yes, it was a candle, though it wasn't much left of it.

Slowly their eyes got used to the shades and they saw the shape in John's bed, so they saw when a face was turned towards them;

"Jubilee, Piotr, look! He made it, he's awake!"

The shaky voice of Angel sure was heard, but the words first didn't make any sense to them, how could this be? John was… he was sitting up?!

Both of the mutants in the door only stared at the other face that appeared from the bundle on the bed. It took on a lazy smile and spoke with John's voice;

"Hi."

That gave them back their ability to move, and in just a few seconds they had crossed the floor and were at the side of the bed. There sat John and Warren, alright, Warren keeping his friend up, and both wrapped in John's covers. Both seemed tired, but happy, and neither of the other two could keep the smile of their faces when they took turns in pressing the air out of the poor Pyro's lungs.

When the first confusing chaos settled down they stared to laugh at each other in pure relief, still a bit confused. None of them really knew what to believe, people had told them such different things lately and almost all of them proved to be false in some way even if the person who said it never had lied before…

Then suddenly Piotr fell silent and looked a bit chocked. When Warren asked why he answered with a bit of a shaky voice;

"Kitty and Bobby still don't know. Nobody knows that you're alive…"

For a short moment they just stared at each other in silence, but then Jubilee smiled again and jumped down from her tiny place on the bed;

"Well, then we just tell them!"

Piotr stood up as well (he had been smart enough to use the chair) and once again they walked away with each other, leaving John and Warren alone.

Now it's just to gather the threads and end it, right?

Anyhow, happy for reviews, as always!