Oof, I'm sleepy, but wanted to get this chapter out to you asap. Enjoy!
It was a glorious mid-September afternoon on the island, and Laurien was making the most of it in the community garden, selectively harvesting vegetables for that evening's potluck. They'd been graced with an abundance of cucumbers, tomatoes and bell peppers this year, and as she placed her chosen pickings in her basket, Laurien was already envisioning the large bowl of greek salad she would make later that afternoon. She was hoping to finish preparing it within the next hour, as the kitchen would soon be busy in preparation for the soft pretzels Erik would make with the children once they finished up at school.
As she finished harvesting the cucumbers and was awkwardly shuffling between the rows of plants towards the tomatoes, Laurien cast a worried glance towards Raven's house. They had yet to hear from Raven, however that was not uncommon, as they didn't have a telephone on the island yet. It was a current matter of debate amongst the residents, as some liked the idea of having a permanent number rather than that of a mainland payphone, while others preferred keeping themselves and the island separate from the mainland completely. Laurien was personally leaning towards getting the phone connection, but at that moment she was wishing they already had one so that she could ensure that everything at Westchester was alright. A nosy part of her wished she could have been a fly on the wall to witness Raven's discussion with Charles regarding the risks he was taking with the team, however perhaps she was better off not knowing the bitter details.
Laurien had only just settled herself back down in the dirt and snipped off a few tomatoes when she heard a commotion off in the distance. She glanced up, but found that she couldn't see over the plants. She wasn't proud of how much her joints protested as she got to her feet, but all concern for her aches and pains was swept away when she caught a glimpse of fiery red hair.
"Who are you?" The voice of Ariki, one of the earliest residents on Genosha and one of its fiercest defenders, boomed across the clearing, "What are you doing here?"
Swearing under her breath, Laurien scrambled into action and moved deftly through the rows of plants to the garden's exit, hoping that whatever was happening wouldn't escalate in the time it took her to reach them. She managed to get out of the garden and quickly made her way towards where Ariki and several other mutants were standing before Jean, who looked like a deer caught in headlights with her arms crossed protectively over her chest.
Ariki took another step towards Jean. "Answer the question."
"It's alright, Ariki." Laurien called as she approached them. "I know her."
She put a calming hand on the man's bare arm once she reached him, sensing his emotions burning within him. Ariki's protectiveness of the island and of all its residents was something to be admired, however it did mean that he was severely distrustful of any visitors. Even Hank, who visited multiple times a year, had yet to be fully accepted by the man.
She bid him a quiet thanks before turning to their unexpected visitor.
"Jean." She greeted the girl with a smile. "What a lovely surprise. We weren't expecting you."
"I know. I'm sorry, but…" Jean glanced nervously at Ariki and the other mutants who were now retreating to their usual hang out. She looked back to Laurien with her wide and bloodshot eyes, her crossed arms falling to her side. "I didn't know where else to go."
With her arms no longer in the way, Laurien's gaze immediately snapped towards the large dark stain marring the light blue fabric of her shirt. In her gut, she knew it was blood.
"Are you alright?" Laurien asked, concern flooding her senses as she reflexively reached out to touch Jean's arm, but the girl flinched back before she could do so. Laurien drew her hand back, taking care to lower her voice. "Has something happened?"
Jean opened her mouth to answer, yet the words couldn't release themselves from the confines of her lips. She eventually shook her head, evidently unable to talk about whatever was bothering her just yet.
Not needing any explanation to know that something was seriously wrong, Laurien gestured towards her house. "Come inside, I can make us some tea."
Laurien led Jean across the clearing, suddenly feeling self-conscious under the weight of the many eyes following their movements. She felt a profound sense of relief when they finally entered her house and she closed the front door behind them.
Laurien summoned the kettle into her grasp and began to fill it with water, carefully listening to the house for any indication of whether Erik was currently inside, but she couldn't hear anything to say definitively. While it was best that they were uninterrupted in discussing whatever had happened, she nevertheless couldn't help but wish that someone else was nearby. It wasn't that she was hesitant to be alone with Jean, it was simply that whenever they'd previously interacted with one another, there had always been another person, whether it was Scott or another of the X-Men. It then dawned upon Laurien that she and Jean had never spoken one on one before.
"You'll have to forgive them for the frosty reception." Laurien said, trying to fill the silence with something other than the rush of water from the sink. "They're not accustomed to unannounced guests."
"It's alright. I understand." Jean murmured quietly. She seemed distracted, yet simultaneously on edge. The energy coming from the other woman's body was worrying, raising goosebumps along Laurien's arms as she was hit with churning swells of intense heat and cold.
Once Laurien got the kettle set on the lit stove, she turned to face Jean. Again, her eyes couldn't help but flit down to the dark stain on her shirt. "Are you hurt?"
"No." Jean uttered succinctly.
Laurien frowned, "You sure?"
"It's not…" The girl trailed off, and Laurien immediately caught onto her meaning, her stomach plummeting.
"Can I get you a change of clothes?"
Jean looked down at herself again before looking back up at Laurien, her mouth opening and closing without sound, still unable to make the words rise from within her.
Her heart clenching painfully within her chest, Laurien crossed the room to grab one of her own shirts from the pile of folded laundry in the basket by the staircase and handed it to Jean. "The bathroom is the first door on the left down the hallway."
Jean took the shirt wordlessly and followed Laurien's instructions to the bathroom, leaving Laurien to wait awkwardly in the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, still listening intently for any sounds coming from around the house.
She was struggling to imagine what could have happened. If the blood wasn't hers, then whose was it? It was clear that the poor girl was in a state of shock, and while Laurien wanted to help her, she wasn't sure how she might best do so. Nevertheless, her mother had always claimed that tea was a good start to combatting all the world's ills.
Unfortunately, the tea still had yet to boil by the time that Jean emerged from the bathroom, wearing Laurien's shirt and carrying her own in a white-knuckled grip.
"It will still be a bit longer for the water to boil." Laurien said, managing to put a reassuring smile upon her face as she gestured toward one of the dining room chairs. "Please, make yourself comfortable."
Jean didn't take Laurien's offer to sit, instead wandering silently towards the photographs hanging from the wall. Laurien was quite proud of the collection of photographs, specifically the one of all the children together a few years ago. It depicted Peter, Wanda, Nina, Kasia, and Ari, all smiling at the camera from their perch on the rocks of Genosha's southernmost beach. Despite being twins, Wanda did not look similar to Peter, though she supposed that Peter's silver hair had a large deal to do with it. Instead, Wanda had the same shade of auburn hair that the younger children had. Next to that prized photo was another where she was using her long hair to give Ari a mustache and beard. They'd all gotten along marvelously, and Wanda had extended an invite for them to come visit her in Paris. They had yet to take her up on her offer, as Erik was reluctant to leave the island, and Laurien was reluctant to go without him.
Jean continued to look at the various photographs until she paused on one. It was a group photo they'd all taken together when Hank had come to visit two summers ago. He and Raven stood arm in arm with Nina, while Laurien and Erik respectively wrestled Kasia and Ari into remaining still enough for the photo. Despite the happiness displayed in the photo, Laurien could sense a new unsettling sensation building within Jean, something that she could only describe as the sharp, repeated stabs of panic and fear driving into her flesh.
"You know what, how about we go for a walk?" Laurien suggested as evenly as she could, feeling a slight swell of relief as she drew Jean's attention away from the photo that was seemingly causing her so much pain. "There's a nice spot near the bluffs, it's far from everyone else and quiet."
Jean blinked, considering this. "I'd like that," she finally responded, the suggestion seemingly tempering the alarming sensations emitting from her body.
After turning off the burner and abandoning the kettle to cool despondently on the stove top, they exited the house and walked toward the tree line. They made their journey through the forest in silence, passing within view of the Mirkwood cabin on their way to their destination. Before long, the trees gradually thinned out, revealing the wide expanse of the horizon beyond the long grass of the bluffs.
"Are you alright to sit?" Laurien asked as she came to a stop in a lush patch of grass a few meters away from the cliffs.
Jean made no indication otherwise, so Laurien carefully seated herself on the ground, with Jean following suit.
"I sometimes like to come out here and just take a moment to be alone with my thoughts." Laurien divulged, running her hand appreciatively through the strands of grass, letting them tickle the palm of her hand. "Even on Genosha, life can get rather loud."
"I can understand the feeling." Jean murmured, her voice a soft rasp.
Laurien felt a renewed swirl of conflicting emotions rise within the other woman.
"I know you might not want to discuss it, but did something happen to you recently?" She gently prompted.
Jean bit her lip, seemingly fighting back a wave of tears, before finally nodding.
"Okay." Laurien said with a slow bow of her head. Now they were getting somewhere. "Whenever you're ready, why don't you start from the beginning?"
Jean looked out toward the horizon, taking a deep breath of sea air to fortify her before she embarked on her story.
"I-I suppose it started with the mission to rescue the Endeavour." She began, her fingers fidgeting with the sleeves of her cardigan. Laurien only now realized that there was a collection of spattered bloodstains on the sleeves as well. "Did you hear about that? I know Genosha doesn't get much in the way of news."
Laurien hummed, the scene at the diner springing to mind. "We heard about it. Though I'll admit, we were…" She paused, trying to think of an accurate, yet polite word to describe how they had reacted to the news, "...surprised that the X-Men were sent in, especially since Hank previously told us that the jet wasn't capable of going into space."
The red-head let out an exhalation of breath in what almost could have passed for a laugh. "Right, yeah. That's what we thought too. We were all a bit hesitant about the mission, especially since we've never trained for space travel before, but Hank said it would be fine."
"Based on what we heard, it sounded like everything went alright."
"At the time, I would have said the same," Jean sighed with a shrug. "But now, I don't know if I would say so."
Laurien frowned, her heartbeat quickening inside her chest at what Jean was implying. "So, what really happened out there?"
Jean's expression pinched as she recalled what she'd experienced. "There was a flare heading towards the shuttle and I was inside it, trying to keep it together to help Kurt rescue the commander of the Endeavour. It was too quick for us. Kurt was able to get the commander back to the jet, but the flare collided with the shuttle while I was still inside. I was conscious when it hit me, and it felt like I was overtaken by this… power." She murmured quietly, her expression softening into an almost dreamlike state. "It seemed endless."
As Laurien listened carefully, she wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but she thought she saw a golden hue overtake the blue of Jean's eyes.
"When I woke up, I was back on the jet with everyone else. I felt fine, but strange. I was just happy to be alive. I could never have imagined what harm would come of it."
The moment the words left Jean's mouth, Laurien was suddenly hit by a brick wall of conflicting emotions. She bit back a gasp, her hands gripping the long blades of grass by her side to offer herself some support. Intense fear and deep-seated anger swirled together in a teeming mess, but cutting through it all was the relentless rhythm of an all too familiar guilt pounding against her rib cage.
As suddenly as it had arrived, the all-encompassing sensation dissipated, permitting Laurien to catch her breath.
When Laurien glanced over at Jean in alarm, she was met with an apologetic look, her eyes blue once again. "You can feel what I'm feeling now, can't you?"
"I can." Laurien admitted with a slight cough, her chest heaving as she forced her clenched fists to release the handfuls of grass she'd accidentally pulled from the ground.
"And in addition to that, you're sort of like me." Jean said, a small smile tugging at her lips, perhaps the first she'd seen from her since her arrival. "I remember seeing a bit of your mutation during the whole Apocalypse crisis."
Laurien cleared her throat with difficulty, the effects of the sudden barrage of emotions still wreaking havoc on her senses. "Well, I'm certainly not at the same level as you are, but like you, I have telekinesis."
"Have– Have you ever lost control of it?" Jean asked, looking down at her clasped hands. "Like, hurt someone when you were overwhelmed or scared?"
Laurien nodded slowly.
"What happened?"
"When Erik and I were first seeing each other, I had a…" She hesitated, choosing her words carefully, "…particularly bad night terror. When I woke up, he tried to help me, but I didn't recognize him and accidentally threw him across the room with my powers."
Strangely, Laurien felt a swell of disappointment emit from the other woman. "But you've never accidentally killed someone with your powers, have you?"
Laurien cast her gaze towards the horizon as her vision was dyed an icy blue. In that horrible moment, she knew that if she wanted to help Jean, she'd have to unearth a long buried part of her past.
"I have, actually." She admitted quietly, inwardly fighting the impulse to touch the scars that still marred her chest from his knife. "My older brother."
"How old were you?"
"I suppose I was a few years younger than you are now." Laurien explained, painfully aware that this was only the second time in her life that she had discussed this matter aloud. Heat blossomed within her chest, a small irrational part of her actually becoming angry that she had to put the memory to words once more. "My emotions built up to a peak and my instincts took over. It was all over in a split second, and there was no hope of taking back what I had done."
"How– How did you manage to forgive yourself afterwards? To live with what you've done?" Jean asked, her lip trembling and her voice thick with emotion as she tried to keep herself together.
Blinking rapidly to prevent her own tears from rising to the surface, Laurien took a deep breath. As if to spite her, her cruel mind conjured up the horrid image of Dan lying crumpled on the floor, his neck twisted unnaturally. "It… was difficult. Honestly, it still is, even after all this time. It took me years to fully come to terms with what happened, and even now, I try not to think of it."
A gentle wind swept over the bluffs, carrying with it the scent of the sea and a sense of calm that helped to ease the long-held feelings of bitterness and loss stemming from decades ago.
The sound of Jean's hitched breaths made Laurien wish she could reach out and comfort the girl sitting next to her, however the recent memory of Jean flinching from her touch stayed her hand. "Did something like this happen recently, Jean?" She asked gently, the image of Jean's blood-stained shirt floating towards the forefront of her mind. "Was someone killed by accident?"
Tears streamed down Jean's face as she looked off into the distance. It took her a moment, but then she finally gave a small nod.
"Okay." Laurien breathed, the weight of this knowledge sinking within her like a rock. Her mind immediately strayed to thoughts of who it might be, of which member of the X-Men had been killed in a terrible accident. She forced the thoughts down, needing to focus on the girl beside her. "We can sort this out. I know it doesn't feel like it now, but everything is going to be alright. We can talk with Charles, and–"
At the mere mention of his name, a molten heat radiated from Jean.
"No, I– I won't speak with him." Jean spat out, angrily wiping the tears from her face with her sleeves. "I can't."
Laurien was taken aback by this sudden change in the girl. "Jean…"
"You used to be close with Charles, right?" Jean asked, her voice hardening as her blood-shot eyes flashed dangerously.
Laurien carefully observed Jean before uttering warily, "I was."
"But you're not anymore."
Laurien shook her head, "We haven't been close for quite some time."
"Do you still trust him?"
Laurien was unsure of where this line of questioning was headed. "Jean, I'm not sure if–"
"You used to, but he lost your trust long ago." Jean stated knowingly, her gaze piercing into Laurien. "He did something to you without you knowing because he thought he was helping you."
Ice water surged through Laurien's veins, chilling her to the bone. There should be no way of Jean knowing about what had occurred between her and Charles unless she had looked within Laurien's mind. Laurien understood that looking into others' minds without consent had been forbidden since Jean's arrival at the school.
"What did he do, Jean?"
Jean blinked, as though snapping out of some reverie. Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head bitterly. "I'm afraid he hasn't learned from his mistakes at all."
Poor Laurien doesn't yet know the devastating truth of what happened...
I find I have a tough time writing Jean, because her dialogue was rather stilted in the film and didn't give her much to work with personality-wise. I suppose as long as she kinda unsettles the characters around her, it works. Next chapter is when the shit properly hits the fan.
I'm also just gonna stir the pot and point out that Jean's powers are kinda like what would happen if Charles and Laurien had a daughter... Timeline kinda synchs up too...
I am absolutely exhausted after my long, fun day, but I really wanted to finish this chapter and get it posted for you all. Please excuse any mistakes. I did a double-feature at the nice movie theatre with the recliner chairs a few towns over and saw Heart Eyes and Companion with my Spooky Buddies group. So worth it and it was a great time! But yes, I am sleepy, so I shall bid you all good night.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a comment and/or review!