Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
She lay in a room that was both welcoming and strange, looking to things that stirred feelings and memories in her that felt off. Slipping from her bed she wandered about, picking up toys and looking to empty picture frames. Somewhere thunder crashed and crackled, light flooding the hallway beyond her room with feet racing. Her door was thrown open, a woman there who she called mom though something about her face was different. Picked up and carried away, she felt droplets fall against her cheeks and slipped her tongue free to taste one trailing down her lips, finding it salty and warm.
"We're going to play hide and seek baby, I'll come find you okay? Don't come out until I find you..." Mom said, herself dutifully nodding as she was put into the dumbwaiter.
Curled up and hugging her knees to her chest, she was lost to the darkness as the tiny box sank into the very depths of the basement. Hearing yelling upstairs, angry and loud, she thought it worrying she couldn't think who it could be. Her mom was going to find her though, so she did as she was told and hid. Boxes towered over her, wandering through a maze of cardboard as she sought the best place to hide. Crying carried from upstairs now, a slap like she'd heard on tv followed by a scream, rushing off to find a place to hide even though all she wanted was her mom to come and get her.
Bumping a towering pile of boxes one fell with glass breaking, scared and worried she'd get blamed for it even though she didn't mean to. Slipping in past the furnace and squeezing in behind the water heater, she nestled down and found it warm and welcome, though she felt cold and scared. Staring into the dancing flames of the furnace, the yelling upstairs carried on with screams and people begging. Crying herself, she hid knowing her mom was coming for her just as they had played before, always so good at hiding it took her mom so long to find her.
The door to the basement open and crashed against the wall, heavy steps trampling down the stairs with the shadow cast filled with menace. Flashlights flared through the darkness searching for her, hidden in her safe place trusting that only her mom could find her. The basement twisted and shifted, the dripping tattoo of water beating away against the floor with a damp chill washing over her. The footsteps were joined by others, men wandering around in army fatigues searching and hunting with rifles in hand.
Upstairs the screaming grew louder, the report of a gunshot joined by an anguished wail to be silenced with the thunderous crash of another piercing the night. Her mom wasn't coming to find her she knew, but she'd still wait in the darkness for her like she'd been told, too scared to move. The men kept searching for her through the maze of boxes with their heavy feet echoing in the cavernous depths filled with twisting pipes and harsh lights. Blinking her eyes and feeling her world twist she wasn't hidden now but trapped, a rotten blanket wrapped over her shoulders and hearing the crying of others in the shadows.
"She said she'd come for me. She's coming for me because she said, I just have to wait..." She found herself saying again and again, trying to convince herself of the words.
A flashlight sought her whispering voice, the shadow behind moving through the tangled piles and stacks of boxes. She had to be quiet, she had to hide, she had to wait. Some part of her knew no one was coming, knew they couldn't ever come for her again as she whispered the words again with tears trailing down her cheeks, tasting them again to find them still salty and warm. The light shone bright blinding her, raising a hand to shield her dazzled eyes, a woman stepping out of the darkness whose eyes were filled with worry though she smiled just the same.
"You can come out now..." The woman whispered, her hand offered.
The world shifted again, Marie finding herself crouched before a child no older than eight, her hand held with a flashlight tucked under her arm. The girl, dressed in pyjamas with teddy bears on them, was impossibly tucked and hidden behind a water heater. Blue eyes filled with fear looked to her, the girl pressing herself further into the space.
"What's your name?" Marie felt herself compelled to ask, thinking she should know the answer though it escaped her.
"Jubilee..." The girl whispered, the world twisting again with the trappings of the basement cast off.
They weren't alone now, the girl on her way to becoming a woman dressed in pyjamas of yellow with a filthy rag of a blanket wrapped about her. Not alone, five more children clustered with her in some pit of concrete and steel. Marie stood there dressed as she had been one horrid and awful night knowing something was so very wrong but she just couldn't figure what or why. Someone was calling above, looking up to see a face she knew though looking younger than she should.
"Jubilee!" Ororo cried aloud in relief.
"Jubilee..." Marie spoke aloud, the dream coming unwound as her mind refused the twisted reality to awake with a start.
Gasping for breath and searching the room wondering where she was, she looked beside her to find her friend in a troubled sleep. Rocking her gently, she stirred and looked up with eyes she had seen moments before, filled with the same fear.
"Jubes?" Marie asked in a whisper.
"Roguey?" Jubilee asked weakly with a shaky breath.
"Did you, did you just have a nightmare?" Marie asked as she found herself shaken.
"Mondo bad dream..." Jubilee whispered, curling up on the bed to hug her knees.
The dream came back in full force as she looked to her friend like that, an image of how she must have looked as a child and dressed in pyjamas so different to the tiny T and short shorts she wore now. Marie wished it were all some tormented dream woven from the talks she'd had with her friend, but too much of it had felt all too real, too much of it had been left unsaid or unspoken. Jubilee never said how, only that her parents were dead, had never talked about the hole only that it had been horrible and cold.
"Jubes, how...how did your parents die?" Marie asked, not trusting her voice or resolve to hold.
Jubilee looked up shocked and pained, her eyes going wide as she looked on her. Marie feared the answer though she felt she knew the truth, having lived a twisted mockery of the memory of it though she knew not how. Thinking of the night past and the visions she'd seen then, she feared the answer so very much thinking of what it could mean.
"They, they were murdered in a robbery. Wouldn't, ya wouldn't think it would ya, but we lived in Bev Hills...never knew we were rich until..." Jubilee whispered, rubbing her eyes with a fist and taking a hard breath.
"You...played hide and seek right?" Marie asked after the silence had gone on too long, Jubilee looking up sharply.
"How did...?" Jubilee asked.
"You hid behind a water heater...until a woman came for you..." Marie said slowly trying to make sense of the nightmare, thinking much of another invasion must have been mixed in.
"Yeah...a cop found me there...a day later. I just kept waiting..." Jubilee cried, unable to finish.
Throwing her arms about her friend and hugging her hard, Marie not knowing if she was trying to comfort or needed it herself as her mind whirled with what was going on, what she feared was happening to her. Yet as painful as it was she felt she had found a reason for just why her friend had been so scared to talk about what had happened to her in the hole, as painful it was to know that truth. Jubilee had lost a home once and nearly again, men crashing in with guns and violence to shatter the sanctity and safety that should be found within those four walls.
"How did you know...?" Jubilee asked in a whisper, her face buried against her friend.
"Because I had the same dream, Jubes...I don't know how, unless..unless my mutation is coming back." Marie whispered, her voice cracking and shattering.
Torn from the warm embrace she looked to Jubilee and found her face stern yet filled with concern. Her hand was taken up, Jubilee holding it between them tightly.
"Don't you go there, don't you go working yourself up girl. See this, two nights you and me we've been spoonin' and fighting over the blankets. We'll talk to Moira later, we'll figure this out. Just you don't go back to being afraid to do this..." Jubilee said, squeezing her hand tight.
"But what if...?" Marie asked, the fear and worry she hadn't known for three years coming back to her all too easily.
"Don't. We'll figure this out, all of us." Jubilee ground out.
Amazed at the belief and trust offered to her, Marie found herself promising herself that much as she held her friend's hand. Wondering and worrying at it, she found herself having to ask another question then that she hoped her friend would have an answer for.
"What am I gonna tell Logan?" Marie asked, Jubilee just smiling.
"Ya just did dipshit." Jubilee managed to chuckle, thrusting her chin to the door.
Looking there, it stood open with a shadow darkening the frame, her eyes wide and her fears and worry crashing against her as he stepped into the light cast from the window. He settled on the edge of the bed, taking her into his arms with a hug that promised just as much as had been spoken moments before. He was slick with chill sweat and she could feel his heart hammering away. Her own worries were forgotten as she thought to the nightmare she had suffered and realised the truth, it hadn't been hers but his. Staring up into his eyes, though no tears could be found they glistened in the dim light, yet to have been shed.
"Nightmare?" Logan asked softly.
"Mondo bad dream..." Marie whispered using her friend's words.
"Might as well go get some air and take a stroll down ta the dock, sun will be up soon enough." Logan replied, rising from his bed to offer a hand.
"Jubes?" Marie asked.
"I don't think I'm getting back to sleep anyway." Jubilee replied with a shrug.
"I'll go make us some coffee, might as well have us a little chit chat down there. You ladies get freshened up and put your faces on, ya both look like shit." Logan whispered.
Walking to the door, he ducked and dodged the pillows thrown at him, looking back at them one last time with a cocky smirk before vanishing into the dark hall. Left alone together on the bed they looked to another critically, a spurt of giggles bursting out.
"Ya really do look like shit Roguey." Jubilee confessed.
"Pot, kettle." Marie argued, rewarded with a juvenile raspberry that was so welcome in that moment.
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"I never get over how many stars are up there." Jubilee said, lying on her back staring up to the evening sky.
The lake was as glass, Marie toying with another's gift as she took pictures and wondered just how it was people captured those stirring visions she'd seen. Looking to another, she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Logan there with a booklet in hand.
"Why don't ya let me have a crack at it." Logan said, taking the camera in hand and playing with the settings.
Settling down on the blanket spread out upon the dock, Marie felt a poke to her side and looked back to see Jubilee looking to her. Rolling to her back and looking to the heavens above, though she had seen the splash of stars countless times as a child, the beauty never lost it's magic.
"Roguey?" Jubilee asked softly.
"Yeah Jubes?" Marie replied, daring to find the gods and heros cast in the sky above.
"About all that...can, can you not tell Pete?" Jubilee whispered.
Rolling to her side she looked to her friend, wondering at her words and feeling her stomach grow tight with worry and fret. Staring at the sky if only to avoid meeting her gaze, Marie pinched a toe in a sadistic game of This little Piggy until she relented. Looking to another, one angry and the other amused, she let go of the pinky toe with a playful flick.
"Ya never told him I'm guessin'?" Marie asked.
"I couldn't, ya don't know how much he was blamin' himself after Stryker, worrying about the six of us. Big dumb lug, he was protecting everyone else with Kitty and had the gall to go getting teary eyed apologzin' to for leaving. Idiot." Jubilee whispered.
"Pot...kettle..." Marie replied softly, resting her chin on her friends leg to stare at her.
"I know...shaddup." Jubilee replied quickly, wiping at her eyes.
"Why don't you want him to know?" Marie asked quietly, looking past her friend to see another fussing with a camera with soft muttered threats.
Holding her hand over her eyes and biting her bottom lip, the pain was visible to see on her face as Jubilee struggled with whatever it was that tormented her. Rolling a slipping about, Marie wound her way up to her and settled near, forgetting any fear of her flesh that had been called out of the depths knowing it had no place just then.
"I'm gonna tell him, just...was hard enough dealing with the hole, how am I supposed to tell him? Hey Pete, I was hiding down in the basement as my parents got gunned down in some fucking home invasion, I pissed my fucking pants cause I didn't want to budge even after I heard the front door slam shut. I was curled up against a cement wall for a day wishing it was some fucking nightmare I'd wake up from..." Jubilee started quietly, her voice wailing by the end and her eyes sightlessly staring to the heavens.
The dock bucked and rocked with a sudden weight falling on it, even footsteps falling against the aged planks. Marie looked to see just the person her friend worried over standing there holding his sister in his arms, both with the same sad expression as he settled down next to them. Jubilee refused to meet his gaze, Illyana putting an end to it as she fell into her arms and lifted her up.
"You never need to be afraid to tell me anything Jubilation." Pete said soft and quiet though pained.
"I'm sorry Ju Bee..." Illyana whispered, sniffling and hugging her tight.
Pete wrapped them both up in his arms and hugged them dear and close, Marie joining in sniffling and rubbing her eyes against the stubborn tears. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked to see Logan standing there with the camera in hand, helping her to her feet as they walked off down the dock. Leaving their friends alone to deal with the trial as they were, a family, Marie wandered with the man she knew she had so much to tell and so much to ask.
"Did you know?" Marie asked, regretting it at the sight of the pain in his eyes.
"No, most I knew was that Ro found her with Jeanie, weren't even looking for her, just out doin' some shoppin' way I heard. I figure the only man with an inklin' about it that might have known took it ta the grave. Kid always played it close tot he chest." Logan said softly, stopping to look at the world through the lense though no picture taken.
"I...I think she really needs help Logan, more than I can give her. That, that wasn't a dream Logan, that was some twisted knot of memories." Marie whispered.
"We'll do what we can, and what we can't...well, like she said. We know peeps." Logan whispered, taking her into his arms.
"I think you need help too." Marie nearly cried, struggling for breath.
"Understatement o' the year Darlin', ya...dreamt my damn dream too huh?" Logan asked, kissing her atop her head and saying soft words to her.
"Kookookajoo got screwed..." Marie said and wondered if she had the breath to put voice to it.
"He sure did Darlin', Kuekuatsheu, Wolverine by any other name." Logan replied.
Marie looked up to him with the ghosts of that dream taking her, a voice whispering in her ear the tale of tragic lovers tricked and pulled apart. Hugging him tighter, she swore in that moment she'd never let anything come between them. Not his past, not her mutation, nothing. They had all the time in the world and their whole lives ahead of them, everything else was just some nightmare they had woken from. Hearing the faux shutter and though her eyes were closed seeing a flash of light, she looked to see him holding the camera at arms length, Logan holding her close with a grin.
"I'm not going anywhere, you're not going to be left alone..." Marie swore.
"Funny, was about to say just about the same ta ya." Logan replied, the camera falling against him as he eased her back.
Painted in a splash of red, the dawn broke across the horizon as they kissed, a new day finding them in another's arms with promises uttered. A ragged road stretched before them, their pained pasts behind them, but they'd walk it together.
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Author's Note : Thanks all, might have been a bit shorter than I hoped for but it just felt right. More to come soon :)