Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
The stereo had been Bobby's once, the art a gift from Pete, even a television came in to find it's way up on the wall with a shelf beneath for some DVDs and a player. Behind her desk she found a place for her 'girly' books, a couple more shelves empty for the students to fill up with their favourites. The place was to be a welcome retreat when the students needed it. The door sat open, Marie behind her desk watching as the kids wandered through the halls with more than a few waving at her from time to time.
In the days since joining the school in her welcome role, students had come if only just to talk and get to know her. Some had questions, others longed for advice, one even just looking for a quiet place to study. She learned their names, remembered their faces and came to call them friends.
"Knock knock." Kitty said, peeking her head into the office.
Marie looked up from her latest bit of homework, setting it down with a bookmark someone had gifted her as she spotted the tray of sandwiches. Looking to the time she realized she'd once again lost track of it, the lunch hour rolling around. Clearing some room on her desk, Kitty set the tray down and found a seat in the large leather chair sitting empty.
"Figured you might have been getting hungry, the kids were telling me you were still in here reading." Kitty said, pilfering a sandwich herself.
"You got no idea, I got so much and next week I'm starting night classes." Marie said with a long sigh, flopping into her chair and running a hand through her hair.
"Uh, hello? Three years of College, nuff said." Kitty teased, grabbing a sandwich and leaning over the desk to pass it off.
"True." Marie conceded, taking a bite of her sandwich.
Crossing her legs and tilting her plush leather chair back, Marie started swinging back and forth with her toe catching the desk. Kitty started to pick up some books, flipping through them and curling up with one as she munched on her sandwich.
"So what do ya wanna do once you're done college?" Marie asked, looking out the little window her office had, hardly more than a sliver but the leaded glass was pretty.
"Human rights, get in the face of the government and make sure they don't loose sight that we're all human no matter the nationality, religion or quirk of genetics. I might even come out, just like Hank...not that he really had a choice." Kitty said, flipping another page as she read through a chapter.
"I think you'll do a hell of a job, ya were always about gettin' your point across. I remember ya were always about going public, not wanting to hide. " Marie remarked, finishing the last morsel of her sandwich before dusting crumbs off her shirt.
Kitty paused in her reading, closing the book to look to Marie in thought. After a few false starts, her mouth opening and closing she took a moment to finish her sandwich.
"Yeah...been meaning to do it for a long time but...I didn't want to hurt anyone with it if they got caught up with me. Their cure scared me, they put it in a gun for fuck sake. It kind of drove home just how close we came, I'm gonna do my damndest to make sure we don't get that close again." Kitty confessed.
"Makes me feel safer to hear that, seriously Kitty." Marie confessed, turning to face her from her precarious perch on her chair.
"I...that, that means something to me Marie." Kitty replied, curling up in the chair with her arms hugging herself.
Marie could see something was bothering her friend, the fact that the office was her own let her do something she wouldn't have anywhere else. Gripping the edge of the desk in her hand, she started pulling her chair around until it slammed into the one her friend sat in. Kitty looked to her surprised, but laughing at the antic.
"What's got ya gloomy all o' a sudden?" Marie asked.
Kitty looked to her and then the door, Marie following her gaze to just push herself off across the floor and catch the door with a foot and shut it. Reaching out, she found the lock Logan had placed there for moments like this, on the outside reading In Session. Wheeling her way back, Marie worked her best imitation of The Look to ferret out just whatever it was.
"Can I ask you something?" Kitty questioned.
"It's what I'm gettin' paid for now." Marie teased.
"It's, it's personal. At least you might find it so, but..." Kitty asked all the quieter.
"Kitty, Katherine...unless ya mention Kissy time again, I don't think there's much I could get upset or angry about." Marie assured, reaching out to playfully poke her in the arm.
Kitty smiled a touch, looking to her hands for a very long time with her thumbs twiddling with nervous energy. Looking up, the same old determination she always thought of Kitty having in heaps filled her friends eyes.
"Why did you leave?" Kitty asked, pausing for a second to wrestle with her thoughts.
Marie smiled a wistfully, having thought it might have had to do with that with the way their conversation had taken that one turn. She had struggled with answers for so long when writing those letters, and right now she realized maybe she should have left one for Kitty then too. She'd still been irrationally irritated and jealous of her back then, seeing how easy Bobby and Kitty could be together. Coming back, she expected to hear the news that they were a couple if not more, finding out it had been nothing more than a friendship that had toyed at being something else.
"It didn't feel like home, it felt empty. There was so much missing after..." Marie started, trying to find those words again.
"Was that all?" Kitty asked, looking sheepish.
Marie looked to her, could see just how worried Kitty was, wondering just what she might have thought could have driven her away from the place that had become a home.
"Kit, whatever you've got naggin' at ya, just spit it out. I promise I ain't gonna get mad, sad or laugh at ya." Marie said, holding out a hand to swear on in a shake, Kitty doing so.
"Some of us thought you left because you didn't feel like you belonged anymore, because you took the cure you weren't one of us. Bobby always told me I was crazy, but I...I mean did we make you feel like you couldn't stay?" Kitty asked finally.
Marie leaned over and nearly fell from her chair as it tipped, throwing a leg out to catch herself as she hugged Kitty hard. Squawking in surprise, Kitty caught her and after a moments shock returned the embrace in full.
"No one ever made me feel that way, except that blue bitch back when I first came. Y'all became my friends and family, we mighta fought and butted heads, but I always knew ya would be there for me if I needed ya. That goes double now, and I don't care what, I'll be here for ya all." Marie said, feeling the relief ease into Kitty.
"I left cause I just couldn't take not seeing them around, and I had a lot I had to deal with. The only one that ever made me feel like runnin' off after takin' the cure was me, I felt just so damned guilty the day I met Jimmy. Long time I asked myself if I would have taken it if I had know, and all I can say is yes." Marie softly said, bearing the truth of it all to her friend.
"No one blames you, least none whose opinion matters. If anyone tries to give you lip, you just point me at them." Kitty said, sounding more like her usual self.
"Thanks. I was hurtin' back then though, ya don't know what it's not like being able to do this without worrying. Huggin' just like this, Bobby and me had some special time when I got back, but that guilt was eatin' me up. I just couldn't take being around a reminder of it every damned day, so I just had to go and try and get my head around it, to accept what Jimmy said to me." Marie said, a sniffle creeping into her voice.
"What did he say?" Kitty asked, knowing she had spent some time with the boy when he'd come to stay at the school.
"You're welcome. That's all he said after all the apologizin' I did for everything that happened to him, that I was sorry for takin' it. He just said...You're welcome." Marie said, her voice nothing more than a croaked whisper.
Kitty held her close, her own eyes misting then feeling maybe Marie hadn't have accepted it as much as she thought she had. Hoping maybe she could in this moment, with all the good Marie could do around the school, Kitty made a promise to damned well make sure she would be there for her if she ever felt any of that doubt or guilt creeping back.
Unlatching the lock and opening the door, feeling a weight off her she hadn't realized she had still been carrying, Marie stepped past the door with Kitty at her back. Looking to the hall she saw some students there, greeting the ones she knew and glad as the rest introduced themselves. Instead of looking for a moment of her time, they just wanted to get away someplace to chat without, all their usual haunts already filled. Ushering them in , she joined Kitty with some chore the girl apparently had to help with.
"I can't believe I've got to do this." Kitty said for the fifth time.
"Well, she did help you with your car." Marie pointed out.
"Yeah, but help her with a software update for the Danger Room? Why can't Hank just do it from Washington." Kitty grumbled.
"You tell me. I know how to check my email, vid call and google search." Marie said, pushing her friend into the elevator to the lower level.
She hadn't been to the lower depths of the mansion in years and it looked unchanged, the locker rooms right where she remembered, suddenly wondering if she'd still fit in her leather after all this time. Passing by the medical bay, she spied a lady doctor in there with a man who looked to give Logan a run for rugged, red hair and by the lilt of his accent very Irish. Giving them a wave as she passed, she put it down to find out just all the rest of the staff that had joined the school.
"Where you going?" Kitty asked as Marie turned to the door.
"Danger Room?" Marie said, pointing to the sturdy door.
"Oh, right. Hank upgraded it, it's got an observation booth now that most of the sessions can be programmed and run from." Kitty explained, leading her off further down the hall and taking a right until they found a stairway.
Entering the room, it looked like something out of a computer geek's dream, multiple displays and several workstations littering it. Thinking it a window at first, Marie realized it was the biggest screen she had ever seen in her life.
"That's..." Marie said.
"Why we keep having the kids break in to watch movies on it. Check this..." Kitty said, typing a few keystrokes.
The screen looked like a window looking into the Danger Room. The view was entirely three dimensional, watching and listening to Jubilee swearing from the inside as she worked at a panel, the surround sound tricking her into thinking she was standing next to her.
"I need to find out if there's an exception to the rules for the staff." Marie said, just blown away.
"Hey Lee, how's it coming?" Kitty asked, more swearing sounding.
"Five minutes." Jubilee called out.
"It was two minutes five minutes ago." Marie called out, unable to resist another reference to that one movie.
"Hah! Seriously though, last one. Just glad we can create all the scaffolding I need in here to reach the top ones, checking the projectors is a b to the capital itch." Jubilee said, reaching for another tool and giving her brow a wipe with her sleeve.
"Okay, I'm gonna start that update alright?" Kitty said, pulling the flash drive from her pocket to plug it into the station she had settled down at.
"Yeah sure thing. Shouldn't bother anything. I followed all the service mode steps Hank told me about." Jubilee remarked.
Marie started toying with another station, a listing of all the various scenarios she remembered from years before. The Giant Robot was one of the most grueling, something Kitty had programmed after watching a cartoon movie with the rest of them. Coming to one with the curious name of Mansion, Marie tried to pull it up as she had others, the screen displaying a full video sample of the different scenarios.
"Hey, what's up with this one?" Marie asked, Kitty looking over at her from her station.
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, focusing back on her screen with her fingers flying over the keyboard.
"All the others let me open it up, this one doesn't do anything." Marie said in explanation.
"Huh, weird. Well, the update is running so let me see." Kitty said, popping over.
Typing at it, she worked the screen to click through various menus. Time and again a red screen flare flashed, Access Denied. Growing frustrated, Kitty pressed herself to the task, brushing her hair out of her eyes as it fell.
"Maybe there's a reason for that Kitty?" Marie asked worried.
"I'm just trying to pull up the details, even restricted you should be able to find out ownership and difficulty level." Kitty explained, finally the screen showing what looked to be the mansion at night.
"Okay, weird." Kitty said.
"Hey, what the hell!" Jubilee's voice cried out over the speakers.
Looking up from their smaller screen, they saw the same projection on the largest screen, Jubilee alone in a hallway looking around with her arms gesturing angrily. Kitty looked back to the console, bringing up a new screen with a swipe of her finger to check something.
"Uh, I don't know Lee. The Danger Room still shows it in Service Mode, I was just trying to check out a weird restricted scenario." Kitty explained.
"What scenario?" Jubilee asked.
"Mansion." Marie said.
"Oh shit, oh shit. Get me the hell outta here!" Jubilee screamed, looking around the halls clearly worried.
"I'm trying to shut it down, I think the update is messing with it. At least it's not Giant Robot." Kitty said, furiously typing at the screen.
"Fuck sake, it's worse! This is Logan's! Open the door!" Jubilee yelled, racing down a hallway that spread out before her looking over her shoulder.
"I'm trying, it won't work." Kitty cried, clearly frustrated.
Marie saw the reason for Jubilee's fear and worry, men in black army fatigues appearing suddenly creeping through the school with rifles in hand. Taser bolts shot out of one, Jubilee ducking just in time to miss with an arch of her lightning of old flashing out to strike him down.
"Lee, just hold tight. We're gonna go hit the emergency shut down. Alright?" Kitty called out.
"Just hurry the fuck up!" Jubilee screamed, her voice panicked.
"C'mon, the main shut off is down out by the doors. You hear that Lee, we're shutting it down right now!" Kitty yelled, pulling Marie after her.
Rushing out the doors with Kitty leading, they took the stairs two at a time and vaulted to the bottom completely missing the last four. Running down the hall they came to the door, Kitty working at what looked to be a section of wall until it seamlessly slide down to show an access panel.
"Why don't you just run in there and get her out?" Marie asked, wondering why she hadn't thought of it earlier.
"Can't, well...I can but electronics and me don't like each other. I'd fry the Danger Room hardware, that's a last resort." Kitty hurriedly explained, typing at the tablet sized panel to bring up the scenario.
"You okay Lee?" Kitty asked, working at pulling wires and cards with a delicate touch.
"Lee?" Marie asked, growing worried.
Gunshots were ringing out, the sounds of explosions crashing over the tinny sounding speaker. Pulling the last card, all sound finally ceased with the scene of the school vanishing to darkness. Following the shouted instructions of Kitty, Marie mimicked her in pressing a piece of wall, another hatch appearing with a crank behind it.
"Okay, on three start cranking! Three!" Kitty yelled, both turning their cranks in time with the doors to the Danger Room finally cracking open.
Footsteps sounded from down the hall, the lady doctor and Irishman rushing up with them. Quickly pressing himself through the crack he ran in, an oath swore in Irish brogue that left Marie's blood running cold. Rushing in with Kitty and the lady doctor, smoke hung in the air with the tang of ozone heavy.
"Jubilee?" The Irishman asked, Marie joining him in walking up to her.
Jubilee sat crouched in a corner, hugging her knees and staring blankly at the floor. Creeping up to her, Marie gently brushed her fingers down her cheeks, Jubilee looking up then. Springing forward, Jubilee wrapped her arms about Marie and hugged her hard. With the embrace, Marie noticed the tremble running through Jubilee, wrapping her arms about her and helping her to her feet.
"Okay Lee, it's Okay. We're going, c'mon. We're going." Marie whispered.
Walking up to the doors, only then did she noticed the scorched marks against the panels, the dents and buckled steel with sparks arching in places. Slipping through the door, as they got into the hallway the lady doctor joined her and helped guide them off to the medical bay. Helping to settle Jubilee down onto a table, the woman started to check and tend to Jubilee.
"Saints preserve us, what happened?" The man asked.
"Some restricted program of Logan's started up while Jubilee was in there servicing the Danger Room. But I don't know why she looks so spooked Sean." Kitty said in a hushed voice.
"She's not injured. Jubilee? It's Moira, can ye hear me?" Moira asked of her patient.
Jubilee nodded, her rapid breathing finally calming, her hand still holding tight to Marie's. Blinking several times, she looked to take notice of where she was, looking to Kitty and Marie in particular.
"You okay Lee?" Marie asked, Jubilee shaking her head back and forth.
"Jubes?" Kitty asked.
"Get Pete. Just get Pete please." Jubilee said, her eyes misting.
Nodding, Marie found her phone, dialing as fast as her fingers could, the phone going right to voicemail. Throwing it onto the speaker phone, Jubilee looked up in understanding, drawing her knees to her chest.
"He's probably in his studio, I'll run to get him alright Lee?" Kitty said.
"Ach, ye stay here, I'll go drag the boy down." Sean said, rushing off down the hallway.
"Well, the lass is fine so I'll leave ye to it." Moira said as she excused herself.
Left alone, Marie climbed up onto the bed with Kitty joining her on the other side of their friend. Wrapping her up in their arms, resting their heads against hers and promising her Pete would be along soon.
"Thanks..." Jubilee said in nothing much more than a whisper.
"You're our friend Jubes, don't worry...I'm gonna tear the damn software apart and figure out what went wrong. Nothing I did should have caused that, gotta be a bug." Kitty said, hugging her tight.
"Not that..." Jubilee said.
"What?" Marie asked.
"For coming for me, for getting us out." Jubilee said, rubbing the tears that came from her eyes.
"Of course we were gonn..." Kitty started, her voice dying as she caught the look Marie threw her.
"Us?" Marie asked, the vision of the soldiers stalking through the school bringing her back to years before.
"From the hole..." Jubilee said, starting to rock back and forth.
"You mean from Stryker?" Marie asked, Jubilee just nodding.
"Oh fuck Lee..." Kitty said, her hand to her mouth at the realization.
"You're welcome Jubilee, no way we'd leave you all there." Marie said, brushing her friends hair from her face.
"Is that why you stayed? Why you didn't go to college?" Kitty asked, Jubilee nodding again.
"I didn't want to leave them alone, I didn't want it to happen again." Jubilee said.
"Oh jeez Lee, you big dummy." Kitty said, throwing her arms around her friend.
Marie joined her, never having any idea of the torment that her friend had held onto all these years that had been stirred by the accidental activation of some scenario of Logan's. Thinking to everything she had shared with Kitty earlier, she started to wonder just how many more of them were holding onto pain from the past, swearing then to find them all and help them through it one person at a time.
"Pete's coming, I can hear him down the hall." Marie said softly, the thunderous sound of the gentle giant echoing.
Rushing into the medical bay, Pete skidded to a stop with an apron still about him splattered in paint. Spying Jubilee between her friends he raced up to her, gently pulling her into his arms and placing kisses to her. Jubilee wrapped her arms about his neck, dangling from him with her feet high above the floor.
"Are you alright Jubilation?" Pete asked in a gentle and quiet voice.
"Getting by." Jubilee said, dropping to the floor, wrapping her arms about her chest as she rested her head against him with his arms wrapping about her.
Guiding her out, Pete paused at the door to look to Kitty and Marie both, a silent thank you given before walking off with his love. Left alone sitting on the steel bed, they waited until they could no longer hear them treading down the hall, falling against the metal.
"Shit..." Kitty said, rubbing her face with her hands and massaging her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna start dragging her in kicking and screaming if I need ta." Marie said, rolling her head to work the sudden stiffness out of her neck.
"Thanks...I mean jeez, all this time and I never knew. I feel like such an idiot." Kitty said, shaking her head in disbelief.
The silence dragged out between them, Kitty finally slipping off the bed to get to her feet. Marie looked to her, seeing determination and regret writ in her features.
"I'm gonna start debugging, could you get me some drinks from the fridge and a good strong bit of coffee in a thermos. I can't rest thinking someone that knows the tricks I know could do that to themselves or someone else." Kitty said, walking off.
Marie found she wasn't alone when she found her way to the kitchen, Logan standing there with a cup of coffee in hand sipping it. Beside him was a thermos, sandwiches and even an assortment of cut up carrots and celery. Tilting her head, he pushed it towards her.
"You heard?" Marie asked, Logan just nodding.
"Yep, something went funky with the Danger Room, somehow one o' my programs going live." Logan said, another sip of his coffee taken.
Marie had more than enough questions running through her head, not the least of which was why he even had a program like that at all. Stepping up to the tray, she found a stalk of celery, chewing on it just to moisten her lips.
"Why?" Marie asked, turning on him.
Logan looked to her, regret in his eyes, finding his cup so very interesting just then. With a sip, he swirled the cup and then pounded back the last of it to toss it on the counter, the mug skittering across the granite.
"Did I have something like that? So I don't ever forget the sound of boot against the wood and creeping through the grass, coming for us for whatever reasons they've found to excuse hunting kids." Logan said, unable to meet her gaze.
Marie could hear the pain in his voice, walking up to wrap her arms about him and press her brow to his as he bent his head. His claimed her, pulling her close and placing a few gentle kisses to her hair before looking past her.
"Is she alright?" Logan asked.
"Yeah...I, well the Danger Room looks pretty beat up. Pete's with her." Marie confessed, lolling her head back to look up to him.
"Guess I better go down and fix what I can, might have ta call Hank for some instructions. C'mon, knowing Kitten like I do, she ain't gonna rest until she figures out whatever caused it. Might just have to slip a little somethin' into her coffee later on if she's gonna be stubborn, bit of Irish cream works wonders making her more agreeable." Logan rumbled, his lips finding her for a kiss.
"Okay, c'mon. I think Kitty is blaming herself too, gotta keep her from beating herself up." Marie said, heading on out with the thermos in hand leaving Logan to handle the rest.
By the time they made the trip to the depths of the mansion's depths they found Kitty sitting curled up in a chair, staring at the screen with a replay of everything that had happened in the Danger Room while lines of code raced over every available console. Walking up to her and hugging her, Marie looked to the largest screen to watch, hardly believing the sight.
"Holy..." Marie said.
"Shit." Logan finished.
There surrounded by men with their rifles raised to her, Jubilee stood with her fists glowing with energy. Static erupted, anything else lost as the seconds counted off to minutes.
"What happened?" Marie asked.
"Won't know till we ask her, whatever it was it was big. Diagnostics are giving me a thirty five percent failure rate, and the Danger Room is built tough. Guess Lee isn't all razzle dazzle." Kitty said, reaching for the tray Logan held to snag a carrot stick.
"Well, I'll leave you two to it, gonna see what I can't figure out down in there. Very least I'll tear down what looks broke, soon as our grease monkey is feelin' right she can get to fixing it." Logan said, walking out.
Toiling into the evening, more than just Hank himself joining in the task over the phone, Marie helped in anyway she could right down to handing tools or fetching coffee for Kitty and Logan alike. Feeling her eyelids heavy and her back aching hours later, she finally found the relief of sleep as Logan guided her to her bed, listening to the click and lock of her latch before she started stripping down to just her barest of undergarments. Nestling down under her blankets, sleep took her finally after struggling with all the worries and frets that had filled her day.
Author's Note : Happy New Years to everyone, best wishes to the coming year. My thanks to everyone who has been enjoying the story, thanks to Bethy, Cjm, Ink and Jeannie for the reviews too. Always nice to hear a word back :) The balls rolling, I hope to make sure it gathers no moss with this story so long as I got me some free time.