Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK

I fell down the subway stairs this morning and now I've found myself with too much free time at home, in front of the computer; you should be happy, you know what that means. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, names, etc; I don't even own the clothes I'm wearing, OK? What else can I say? It was a rough year... but 2008 is promisingly good so far.

The Phoenix's Amend

A mutant swapped Scott and Jean's powers and they're trying to get used to the change, learning what it felt to grow up being one another, but while Scott's psychic migraines were relatively easily reduced by Professor Xavier, Jean's were provoked by her new optic beams and therefore more difficult to control. Oh, and… What's with the Phoenix again!?

Stubborn and proud

She tried to stand her ground and look firm but the woman kept on walking and walking, faster every second, inhumanly fast, but at the same time she saw it in slow motion. It seemed she would pass right through her but she woke up a second before that happened, breathing hard and sweating cold.

Her first reaction was to sit in bed and look for Scott, but she couldn't see a thing. The room was pretty dark and the goggles she had just remembered she was wearing, made it look even darker. "Scott!" she called with a note of distress in her voice, looking around but not finding him. "You promised you'd be here" she cried in her mind, like a little girl. "Scott!" she called again, more nervous than before. She knew it had been just some nightmare, but it felt so real… and the anguish that still remained inside her even after waking up was real too.

For a second she had felt that dream as her real life, her own house, her beloved cat, her baby girl… and then that woman… it was herself after all wasn't it? Wasn't she the Phoenix? "What's that supposed to mean? That I'm to be my own enemy?" she felt confused and her head ached again. "No, I'm not one with the Phoenix anymore…" she convinced herself.

It was three in the morning according to the clock on their nightstand, but Scott came in from outside the room. "What the hell?" She felt a bad omen and shivered unintentionally. Cyclops looked worried at her and turned on a lamp near the door. "Jean! Are you okay?" he asked getting to her side quickly. She took his hand and glanced at the night table. Her glass of water was empty; then back at him. "What's wrong?" he wanted to know, making her feel stupid for getting all worked up over a dream and told herself not to talk about it. "I… I had a nightmare" Jean heard herself saying in spite of the previous self-advice. It took her some self-control forcing herself to calm down and give the dream the importance it deserved: none. She did feel stupid after saying that, of course. Without her powers she was technically unable to have premonitions, so there was no reason to worry at all. That was her excuse, as valid as any other. After all, he was the psychic now, the one who's dreams they should be concerned about. That sole idea made her smile to herself ironically. "Sorry…" she ran a hand through her head to clear her mind. "I didn't mean to worry you, I'm all right now" The last part was a lie, but she needed to lie to herself. "Where were you?" her jealousy was poking her mind insanely. "You sure? You wanna talk about it?" he offered, fixing with his hand the mess her hair was, now that he had become the one with the better vision. Jean rocked her head to the sides. "It was nothing" she said firmly, in order to believe it herself. "Where have you been?" It was something she couldn't hold anymore. She had to ask and looked at his face closely, searching for any sign on it that could be read as suspicious. "I couldn't sleep, so I went down for some ice cream" he said casually. As he wasn't lying, the question didn't mean anything to him, but he knew her. He had caught the jealousy in her words right away, and found it curious. "Why would she distrust me?" he wondered. The concept was silly. He hadn't done anything wrong.

Jean felt the urge of kissing him to make sure he had been sincere about the ice cream, but she knew it was going too far and pushing her luck at the same time. "I'm being paranoiac and unreasonable" she told herself. It wasn't that far away from the truth. And yet, it was completely impossible for her at the time to let go the idea of him cheating on her. She could still see Scott in bed with Emma. Okay, she deserved that, she had put herself in that position on purpose, but it didn't mean it didn't hurt. She was human after all, with conflictive mixed up feelings and everything.

"Can you help me to the toilet?" she asked him innocently. After the mutant that swapped their powers threw her away earlier that day, she had been more useless than ever before. She didn't have Rogue or Logan's physical strength and resistance, actually she was pretty weak in comparison to almost any other mutant at the mansion, except for the Professor, maybe. Without her telekinesis to help her lower the impact, her body had resented quite a bit. That was the not so bright side of being the telepath of the group.

On top of everything else that had happened to her that day, she felt a burden to others, especially to Scott, who had to help her out and carry her around. "Sure, how do you feel?" He still blamed himself for her condition, everybody could see that. The Professor had left the mansion soon after the lights went out, so she couldn't even borrow his wheel chair. Besides, she felt that was unnecessary and an overreaction to something as simple but painful as a bunch of second grade contusions. "I'm fine, I guess the beams just ceased for now, but there's still no sign of my TK" she said detachedly, trying to avoid the subject. She didn't want to go where she knew he'd feel guilty. A depressed Cyclops was something much worse to endure than any pain. Of course he wasn't talking about her new powers, but decided to play along and just nodded.

Scott rose and lifted her little body easily, carrying Jean to the bath in no time. Still, the brief moment was enough for him to feel her delicate scent and slender arms around his neck. He had carried her like that countless times after an enemy caught her off guard or her telekinesis lost against too much weight. Those occasions weren't the live image of romanticism, but he felt happy to be for her when she was most vulnerable and needed him. Not only in the good times. It gave more meaning to what he felt for her.

"Let me know when you're done" Scott indicated, closing the door out of politeness. The fabric of her yellow nightgown wasn't as thick as one would think. Not that he was complaining, but sometimes it was a disadvantage when things among them were tense after a discussion or it was just a bad timing. "Think of something else" he told himself, finding the task much harder than he would have imagined. Storing unsaid thoughts always drove him obsessive, like the times he had been hard on his father Corsair instead of talking about how the man not looking for him and Alex had made him feel, or at that precise time, not being able to apologize to Jean for… well, not accepting her apologies in the first place and all those tongue twisters so typically him. As it has been said before countless times, he was absolutely lousy at anything that meant dealing with his feelings, either talking about them, showing them through his actions or just live with them bottled inside. That was part of his cuteness, countless foots under his perfect leader shield.

When she opened the door, a surprised expression greeted her. Jean wondered what planet his mind might have wandered off to. She had to admit she began to miss her powers. Then, another idea came to her mind. "What's gonna happen to that poor mutant girl?" she wondered. Were they supposed to go along with the plan despite what had happened to them? "We couldn't coordinate as we were before, let alone having to get used to each other's powers from the beginning… and we have what? Like nine days to do so?" It didn't seem doable, but whom else could they send? At that time there weren't other psychics in the team to get the coordination rate they needed. "What's happening with that girl and the training?" was her answer to his inquisitive look. She didn't notice she had been staring at him for a while already.

"I don't know yet. The Professor's gone away and has left no instructions for us. I'll ask him the next time he makes contact" he said while taking her back to bed. "I guess we'll have to let her go…" Scott suggested with composure. If there was anything capable of totally nullifying his leadership skills and his ability to think logically, that was Jean's well being. She knew he'd be like that, but she also knew how lonely and desperate the poor little girl might have been feeling in her cell at that precise moment, so there was no chance she'd give up on the idea. "No way" she firmly decreed. "We have to do something to help her, Scott" she tried to reason with him, but her succeeding didn't seem very likely. "We can send somebody else" he said vaguely, to stop talking about the subject. "And who's gonna be able to do it as well as we could?" she asked him to be rational, indirectly. He shrugged. "I don't know, I'll think of something" his stubbornness was showing again. He had decided he didn't want to solve the issue in that precise moment and there were none to zero chances of something dissuading him. "You know there is nobody capable of reaching the necessary concentration level" Her tone was getting drier, showing the beginning of her mood swing. "As if we could…" he replied ironically. It was his natural defense to anybody's logical arguments. "You can't walk yourself to the bathroom and I'm no different from any member of the FOH association!" "I'm trying to look after you! Why do you always have to disagree?" it was somehow relieving to know he could think whatever he wanted without caring about their mental bond letting her know. Almost refreshing.

"Here we are, arguing again over something stupid" Not that he thought her safety was stupid, but the fact that she resisted his course of action was. Having to struggle with her in order to be allowed to do something as basic as protecting her really frustrated him, and he sighed as he realized that it tired him to argue.

Jean frowned at his sarcasm. She hated it when he talked like that and became obstinate as only a person used to be obeyed can. For a moment there she would have strangled him. Instead, she took a deep breath and calmed herself down, in order to see the matter more objectively. "You're a great leader, you've always been. Don't let your concern for me blind you. You know this girl needs us" she finally told him not allowing any disagreement. "What if it were me trapped in a lab as a test subject?" she knew that way she'd convince him. Scott sighed heavily again, accepting his defeat. "All right, then. What do you suggest?" if she wanted that done, then she could do all the thinking.

The next morning, Scott woke up to find Jean partially dressed and still fighting with her clothes. He saw determination written all over her face, even though a wince changed her expression temporarily every time she tried to do a certain movement. He knew at once that such behavior was a consequence to the conversation they had had before they slept. "She can be a proud stubborn person herself when she wants to" Scott found himself thinking. Even after Professor Xavier had blocked his mind powers in order to prevent him from getting mad since he couldn't control them as Jean could, there still were some telepathy flashes every now and then he couldn't control. Hearing brief fragments of other people's thoughts or so, just like the night before, when she had addressed him with those two words at one point before she fell asleep. It could very well be applied to her too, he thought still a little resented. He had felt lonelier in the last night than in his entire previous life. Getting to know what other people really thought of you wasn't something pleasant, especially if you were unable to control the impulse that made you know those facts in the very first place. "I understand now why she prefers to be alone from time to time. Living like this must be a real curse. Who can censure their thoughts twenty four seven?" He couldn't, and Scott was the most repressed of them all. "And still she's always so kind to everyone…" that thought made him forgive her having called him 'proud and stubborn', especially as he saw her wince again.

He stopped looking at her and approached Jean slowly, now wanting to provoke her anger. That didn't happen often but when it did happen, he didn't want to be the one closest. "Let me help you…" he offered knowing she'd refuse. Of course, she did and gave him a glare to advice Scott not to try again. He must have been feeling especially stubborn that morning… "You know I didn't mean you couldn't take care of yourself" he gave in, conciliatorily. "Well you sounded pretty convinced last night as not to mean it" living with someone, anyone, was hardly easy. He gave her a puppy look, he was giving in, it was her turn to accept what he was saying and let there be peace. "Jean…" he tried again. "I know you're in pain. Let me help you dress so we can go out and look for the jerk who did this to us" he proposed, showing her he was willing to go on with the course of action she had suggested the night before.

Jean stopped showing physical signs of hostility, so he decided to take a chance and finishing buttoning her blouse. It was made of a soft green fabric and the buttons were at the back. She didn't complain or resist, but didn't agree either. "So, how are we fighting the giant who gave Storm and Rogue troubles as useless as we are now?" she asked finally giving in too, expecting him to come up with a solution. Her suggestion had been no to leave the girl alone, to rescue her from the lab, something they could manage to do without their powers if they were smart enough, but going after that mutant who had disappeared when they had almost defeated him was a whole different subject.

Scott raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I thought you had a plan…" he said confused, looking at her slightly puzzled. "I said we should rescue that poor girl from the lab, which I believe we're clever enough as to plot a way of doing, but confronting a mutant who took the whole team to take down and managed to run away at the last minute is suicidal" she said standing up with more will than ability, but making an effort to remain on her feet and even sound confident and sensible. "I see…" he thought about the misunderstanding. "But without our real powers we don't stand a chance… that's a well-guarded lab and…" he began. When he didn't want to do something, it took a miracle to convince him. So many years as a leader had given him a certain amount of self-confidence when it came to strategy. That was something that wasn't reflected in any other asset of his life. "Oh, but I know the way…" she said with a mischievous look in her face.

FOH stands for Friends of Humanity, the anti mutant association.