Oh my goodness! I can't believe I haven't updated in such a long time! I'm sorry for that. I have been writing a book, a serious project and I unintentionally abandoned my already neglected fanfics. The other day I found a review for this one on my e-mail and I thought… why not? If there's anyone reading I have to keep my promise to keep writing… here I go…

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 while trying to find a way to go back to normal on time to be able to rescue the young mutant the Professor asked them to retrieve.

Girls on top

"I'm all ears, red." He let her know with a broad smile enlightening his face for the first time in a long while. She noticed that, and smiled herself at the sight of his handsome features in front of her. "We've been listing our priorities wrong all along." She introduced her plan, receiving a puzzled look from him as an answer. He inquisitively awaited for her to continue and explain the rest of her idea to him, so she went on with the explanation. "I know our current situation sucks and having swapped our powers unexpectedly is quite a bother, but painful as it may be, this little girl needs us, so we have to find a way to help her first and then take care of our own problem." She explained as simply as she could without directly accusing themselves of being selfish by trying to solve the situation grabbing it from the opposite end of the stick. He slightly frowned at her, still unconvinced. The theory might sound good, but as he had told himself before, it was barely doable if at all and getting both of them killed now that they were young again and had a chance to fix things was not on top of his priority list, to be honest. "I don't know, Jean…" Scott complained doubtfully, unable to find the right words to express why the idea still sounded unappealing. That is, besides de fact of being extremely suicidal. "Oh, come on Scott. Think practically for a moment." She asked him seriously trying to prove her point to him. He reluctantly pressed his thin lips together and listened to her, but the determined look on his eyes reflected just how unwilling he was to let her change his mind. "We don't know what caused this or how to revert it. We don't even know where to start looking for this mutant and, as far as we know, it could take us forever to find a way to revert this… if we can do it at all." Jean made a pause to let the idea sink on his mind, taking into account that he might have still been finding dealing with his newly acquired telepathy difficult to deal with. "Now, regular humans have been breaking into… and I might as well say out of prisons and labs for I don't know how many years now without any special powers to help them…" She saw his expression change as if he were about to complain, so she raised her hand to ask him for a little more patience and he closed his mouth again with a slight frustration pout on his lips. "Some of them didn't even need to become violent murders to do so." She didn't need to be a psychic to know that was probably his main concern about her argument besides their own security, so she rushed to make herself clear about that matter. The explanation didn't seem to totally calm down his concern about violence and murder, but it was enough to keep him quiet and listening longer. "All we need to do is finding a way to break in there and rescue that girl with the tools we have at hand." She proposed, making an extremely complex problem sound too easy. He felt she was forgetting many, many major issues and details, but didn't really want to argue and was left with nothing to say, as usual. Used to be the leader, he was reluctant to take other people's ideas as valid, but it was justified. His logic made him a great strategist, so most of times his point of view was the best way to do things.

By only looking at him through the ruby quartz glasses, she instantly knew he wasn't precisely keen on her idea and sighed frustrated, taking away her gaze from him. "I know you don't like the idea, but please say something." She asked him making an effort and trying to involve him on finding a solution to that puzzle, even though she knew he didn't want to get involved on that task at all. "I don't like the idea." He said sounding extremely tired. She frowned at him reproachfully for having only repeated what she had just said to him on the first place. "Yeah, I have guessed that much." The irony came naturally out of her mouth, even if it wasn't something common in her, but he had absolutely called for it. It made her angry to see him uninterested on the mission the Professor had given them and she felt he had left her all alone trying to cope with a responsibility they were supposed to be sharing. "What do you want me to say, Jean?" He asked her looking away as well, not wanting to face her when he knew she was right on being mad at him. "I might be the one plotting all the missions, but I have no idea about how to solve this and the massive mess I've got inside my head is not helping at all. I can barely put two ideas together, how am I supposed to find a way to help a girl I don't know when I can't even help myself?" He explained to her in a way that sounded like a complaint, which made her frown even more for a moment, before her expression softened with empathy. "I know you need to do everything absolutely perfect and flawless in order to feel safe, Scott." She said taking his hand softly in hers, making him look at it for a moment, before looking back at the floor. "But we can't always have the certainty that whatever we plan to do is going to work out perfectly. Sometimes we have to take chances…" Her voice was soft and kind but the look she was giving him demanded Scott to behave on a certain way: the way she expected him to do and so, he dared not look at her yet, looking away to a even further point of the floor. "I don't even ask you to carry the burden of taking this decision on your shoulders. Just trust me on this one. I know we can make it!" She said convinced right before he gave her an ironical look. "I thought you said you didn't know whether we could make it or not…" She rolled her eyes getting mad at him again. That was not the time for being immature, she thought. "Don't twist my words, Scott. You know what I mean, please let's stay on topic…" She asked with a tired sigh. Remembering that conversation made her feel guilty for planting the doubt on his head. "He could be a little more assistant too and refrain from being ironic too" Jean thought. "Sorry." He whispered an apology, still not looking at her and behaving rather stubbornly. She was used to it, of course.

Scott remained silent for a while before looking at her more calmly. His resent for the previous conversation completely forgotten and a worried expression written all over his face. Jean immediately recognized the expression he always had when involving on plotting a mission and felt relieved. "Thank God!" She thought slightly smiling to herself. "Look, Jean… I don't think it is as easy as you put it." He finally confessed his opinion to her in a sincere way, trying not to make her feel hurt in the process, but she didn't seem concerned about him thinking her idea was lousy, naïve or too simplistic. In fact, she looked at her through the thick glasses encouraging him to continue, so he did. "You haven't finished recovering from the last incident and we could get seriously injured doing it your way, even killed…" He explained sounding terribly tired of the argument, but he had to admit he had no better idea of how to solve the problem. "Even if we managed to find the girl, how are we going to make her trust us and follow us here?" He sounded discouraged, but she was determined not to fail to the Professor. She gave him a little encouraging smile and caressed his cheek once, while still holding his hand on her other one. "I do know what I'm talking about here, Scott. Honestly. It might sound simplistic when I say it this way, but I've already thought every detail. It will work" She begged softly, her face barely inches from his, knowing she could make him agree that way. There was nothing he wouldn't agree to if she asked nicely and close enough. Knowing that, Scott tried not to look at her, to avoid falling into her trap and giving in to her charm, but it was only a matter of seconds before he got lost into her green eyes, coloured red by the ruby quartz glasses. They looked into each other eyes in silent. It was as if they were having a silent competition over who would be right that time, whose advice they would take. The confused look on his face and the puppy dog expression made clear she had won by only being sweet. How lousy a leader was he? Was the sentence on his mind as he doubted the decision he had just silently made. "You've always taken all the right decisions for us, Scott. And you said you didn't know what to do about the mission this time… let me be the one you can rely on… trust me just this once." She asked barely audibly as she tip toed to place a soft kiss on his lips. And so, without knowing how it happened, Scott Summers agreed to go along with her insensible plan.

"What are those?" Scott asked Jean the next day with a puzzled expression on his rather innocent face, as she walked to him and offered half a dozen different pills on a tiny glass with a bright smile. "Pills" She said with a mischievous light in her eyes, exhibiting a small confident smile. "And you're gonna take them" Added right after placing the tiny glass on his hand and offering him a glass of water also. "What are they for?" He wanted to know getting a little impatient. His control demanding neurosis wasn't all that happy to have her in control of what usually was his responsibility. It somehow made him feel helpless and lost and, those, were feelings he totally loathed. She was well aware of that fact, but in such a great mood as she was, she couldn't help but finding his lack of patience absolutely adorable. She smiled at the face he made and waited a second or two before actually stopping playing and getting serious. "If you insist, the grey one is for the migraine, the long green one is for the body aches from the fight that put us in this situation, the round pink one keeps your liver in one piece after all the medicine cocktail and the little blue one…" He interrupted her with the impatient look still hardening his features. "OK. I got that, but why?" He went straight to the point. The constant headaches and pieces of thoughts he accidentally kept on receiving from everyone around him had turn him into a much moodier person than he ever thought he could be. He even began understanding women and their constant mood swings he related to the feminine instinct. "Don't you miss thinking without having to make a huge effort to be logical without feeling your head tearing a part? That's why." She summarized with a confident look on her face while he still looked suspicious. "You're gonna love them!" She promised. "She looks so perky today… too perky I'd say… It's almost irritant." He thought suddenly becoming over conscious of how annoying dealing with her gift was. "It looks like she knows what she's talking about. I bet she has already tried them. Yes, that must be why she seems so happy." For he didn't recall it being her birthday or any other special occasion for Jean to be behaving so lively. "Fine. I'll take them." He agreed before putting the pills on his mouth and drinking the water with a wincing expression because of the sour taste of the medicine. "What's the worst thing that can happen to me anyway? Overdose?" He tried to be funny to himself, not precisely achieving it. "Great, because we're going to need our minds as clear as possible if we're going to get this girl back tonight." He looked at her confused, partially shocked to hear that. "So soon? What is she thinking about!?" He asked himself completely lost from the minute she took control of the operative. "Relax. I'll walk you through it." She replied to his silent complaints with a warm smile on her face. Seeing him so helplessly worried about practically everything and doubting every word she said and every directive she gave him was too much for her. Jean found him extremely cute when feeling insecure, and she felt an urge to hug him and tell him that everything would turn all right even if it wasn't his idea. She also knew it wouldn't change a thing, for his need to be in charge and have every single detail under control was something nothing in the world would be able to disappear. "Follow me to the danger room." She asked nicely, being patient and tolerant with her poor confused ex-husband.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks to all that have been reading me throug the years and have been patient with my lack of perseverance. Especially to Zara Rose Myar who has encouraged me to post another update. Please keep on reviewing so I can feel guilty enough as to keep on writing XD

Jean