Revenge Is A Dish Best Served By Generation X
by
Mercutio


WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: This is part of a series, which began with "Painting the Wolverine Red". You don't absolutely have to read that, but you should know that Wolverine and the adult Jubilee are involved in a relationship. Gambit pursued Jubilee at one time, but she's with Wolverine now.

NOTES: Okay, okay, I've been corrupted. This was only meant to be a one story deal -- but the characters just grabbed hold of me and won't let go, so here's number four in the cycle. It isn't my fault! Really! :)

Astalon, Kiwi and Punkin are my own creation.

ARCHIVE: Please. As often as possible and wherever you like.

---

The knock on her door woke Jubilee from a deep and peaceful sleep. One of the best she'd had in a long time, she could tell, without even needing to wake up enough to evaluate the pros and cons of her previous sleeping experiences. "Go away!" she yelled, not moving her head from the comfortable surface it was resting against.

"It's me, Paige! We need to talk!"

Jubilee grumbled, gradually being forced into full wakefulness. Sunlight hit her closed eyelids. "I don't wanna talk. Come back tomorrow."

"It's about Wolverine!"

*Wolverine?* The name caught her attention instantly, as it probably always would, much like waving anything white in front of Frosty caught hers. Something nagged at the back of Jubilee's mind, something important she needed to remember regarding that name, but she didn't want to track it down. She wanted to go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Paige *had* mentioned the magic word. "All right, all right," Jubilee said, grumbling even more fiercely. "Give me a sec."

She raised her head, then dropped it again, in favor of nuzzling her cheek against the warmth of the pillow. Paige could wait until she'd woken up; this firecracker was going back to sleep. The thought drifted through her fuzzy mind that Frosty was really overdoing the whole hand-loomed linen thing -- Jubilee could distinctly feel the fibers in the cloth.

Paige continued knocking, loud enough to wake up a vampire, and the nineteen-year-old replied grumpily -- like she was going to be anything else in the morning -- "I'll open the door in a minute." Reluctantly, Jubilee pushed herself up from the extraordinarily firm surface of the bed.

"I don't think you want t'do that, darlin'," the 'bed' rumbled at her in a familiar and welcome voice.

Jubilee rubbed her eyes. She must be dreaming. This had to be a dream. Since when was her bed made out of superheroes? After rubbing her eyes with one hand, she opened them for the first time that morning. Beneath her rested a -- naked! -- Wolverine. His arm curved around her waist, and her comfortable pillow had been his chest. His eyes were half-closed, but she thought she could see a twinkle from beneath his eyelids that matched the hint of a grin on his face. The events of the day before came back to her then -- her rejection of Logan, and her subsequent date with Gambit. The almost comically disastrous evening that had followed, and then Wolverine's sudden, unexpected appearance in her room. And the results of the ensuing discussion. The extremely satisfactory results.

"Wolvie!" She threw her arms around his neck and began kissing him wildly. No wonder she'd woken up feeling happy and like all was right with the world. Everything *was* right with the world.

His lips met hers, greedily taking everything she offered him. Rough stubble brushed against her face, and she broke away from the kiss to rub her face against his, savoring the feel of his skin against hers. He growled and recaptured her mouth hungrily. As Jubilee's arms braced her body against his chest, Logan's held her tenderly close, as though afraid that this most precious thing might be taken away from him.

"Jubilee!! I'm trying to help you!" Paige shouted from behind the door. Then a disgusted sigh could be heard. "Fine! Be that way!"

Stomping receded into the distance, and Jubilee grinned down at Logan, blissfully happy that she'd remembered to lock the door the night before. And even more happy that her mental shields against telepathic intrusion seemed to have stayed up. If anyone knew what was *really* happening in here, Frosty would be bursting in here with the 'We Hate Wolverine' committee right behind her -- probably at a really awkward moment, too -- all demanding revenge. And last night -- as well as this morning, if all went the way she was already plotting -- were certainly awkward moments. "One problem taken care of. Now we ought to have the rest of the morning to ourselves."

"Nearly afternoon now, darlin'."

"Even better."

****

Rage, hate and bitterness.

Those were the primary emotions Emma Frost sensed from the chaotic sink of negativity that centered on the school's library. The same emotions that had been radiating from Everett ever since he had encountered Jubilee together with Wolverine in the mansion only two days before. Emma had sensed those emotions even then, although only in retrospect did they seem important. At the time, the disturbance in Everett's thoughts had seemed minor, as ordinary a thing as Paige's disappointment at leaving her brother. But now Everett's emotions had become a major problem. His obsessive brooding blocked her ability to see emotion or thought in the rest of the house -- when she sent out a psychic probe, it slid into the morass of resentment that currently comprised Everett Thomas' thoughts, and she could sense nothing more. It was as though a dense fog had settled over the house, and nothing was visible but that fog.

It was hard to understand how a non-telepath could cause such an overwhelming problem. Normally only a telepath or an empath could swamp their surroundings with so much raw emotion. A non-telepath could radiate such thoughts but, without the telepathic power, would not be able to project them like this. Such thoughts could be easily shielded from, and would have caused Emma little worry. She wondered whether Everett's mutant ability might have something to do with this. As Synch, he possessed the ability to put himself "in tune" with many things, including the mutant powers of another person. If, for instance, he had synched himself with Emma's own telepathic powers, he could be radiating hate with the strength of one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet.

She paled, although it was difficult to tell when the person paling was a blonde of fair complexion who happened to be wearing white -- a tactic she had used to her advantage before to avoid showing her emotions. That explanation made sense. Perhaps he had originally done it out of instinct -- when Jubilee avoided him as well as the rest of the team, he might have sought out the telepathic power as a means of monitoring her presence when she had retreated from him. He might even have used telepathy to attempt to convince her to his way of thinking -- his failure could account for the deep pit of near-madness he was now in. That he was now drawing all of them into.

It was time and past time to do something about this.

White stiletto heels clicked down the hall. The White Queen found two of her students busily occupied in the erection of a vaulted-ceiling-high scaffolding in the entry way. Dropcloths had been properly laid down, and the furnishings of the house properly protected against damage.

"What, may I ask, are you doing?" she asked with deceptive calm. "Don't you have classes?"

Angelo, tied to the scaffolding with several twists of skin, answered before Starsmore could make the attempt. "Uh -- this is a class project. For a... demonstration."

She tried to read the outermost layer of his mind, and found herself deflected away into the haze of anger emanating from the library. Drat. She'd have to resort to more elementary means of communication. Like talking. "A demonstration of what, Mr. Espinoza?"

The formal mode of address caught his attention as she knew it would. She was becoming rather tired of the lack of discipline that had ensued upon their return from the festivities in New York. It made sense to extend some leniency to Jubilation -- she needed time to recover her usual exuberance, and Emma was waiting patiently for her student to confide in her. But the behavior of her other students! And on a Tuesday!

He straightened. "Of tactics, Ms. Frost. Like we discussed last week. With Mr. Cassidy. In his class. You weren't there. You see, we have this idea about how to neutralize an opponent who is able to deflect an ordinary attack. Strength against weakness, rather than strength against strength or weakness against strength. It had something to do with 'The Art of War' that we were reading..."

Emma held up her hand. She could see that Angelo would go on and on with his explanation, and without her telepathic abilities, she had no way of knowing what was true or not. Or cutting the explanation short by taking a summary of it from his mind. And it was becoming increasingly irritating not having those abilities. She had more important things to do than bully her students. "That's all right. Sean knows about this, of course?"

"Absolutely."

She nodded. Fine. Emma walked away, secure in the knowledge that her job had been done for the moment. Once she took care of Everett though, she would certainly do something about the current laxity in schedules.

"Whew." Angelo let out his breath once the headmistress was out of sight. "I thought for sure she was going to ask us what we were *really* doing and spoil everything. This is too important."

Jono held his hand to the place where his throat should have been and shrugged.

"Yeah, it isn't like you could tell her much of anything. Must be rough not being able to communicate. Hope that Ev lays off the negative vibes once we take our revenge on Wolverine." His tone was dark and full of nasty gibbering things that were eager to hate and destroy.

The other man shrugged again, this time philosophically, and went back to erecting the framework of the device which would allow them to set up a large set of sound speakers. And, coincidentally, some tar and feathers. Or the currently available equivalent.

****

Emma entered the library -- a room dark with emotion as well as lack of light -- located Everett in a chair by the window, and came to sit next to him. "We need to talk."

He looked up, eyes heavy with pain and wary of more of it. "I'd really rather not."

"This is important. I've tolerated your grief so far, but you are disrupting the psychic functioning of the other members of this school, and for that reason, I must interrupt you."

"Thanks for caring," he said in a voice too tired to support sarcasm, looking away and hiding his eyes in the shadows that cloaked the library. With the electric lights turned off, only the sunlight that managed to get through the long narrow windows illuminated the room. Patches of bright light marred the gloom of the room that otherwise so perfectly matched Everett's mood.

Emma maintained her steady gaze. "Sympathy is irrelevant to this discussion. You already have, I believe, the sympathy of your fellow students, and myself as well. Indeed, with your emotions coloring the psychic atmosphere, you have the empathy of everyone here who possesses more than a trace of telepathic or empathic powers. But," Emma continued, her voice still correct, but perfectly cold, like a sharpened blade, "sympathy is not what you need. Even with our sympathy, your feelings have continued to fester."

"Then what do I need?" Everett laughed hollowly. "I don't know how you're going to get me that. I can't *have* what I need."

She shook her head. "I'm not speaking of Ms. Lee."

"That's who I need."

Emma did not falter upon hearing the overwhelming bleakness of his tone. "Your problem lies inside yourself. *You* need. You are, in fact, needing so much that you have engulfed all of Generation X in your needs. Do you think that the presence of one person in your life could possibly be enough to close that gap? It rarely is, and if it had been, you would almost certainly have been dead already from the shock of losing that person. Most flaws can only be closed from within, or cauterized from without. They cannot be filled with other people. Emplate learned that lesson to his cost and ours, draining too many people of their life forces."

"I'm not Emplate! I'm nothing like him."

"Indeed? Perhaps you do not have his powers, but you are attempting the same action. You are attempting to fill a lack in yourself with the unwilling sacrifice of another person."

His hurt could be read on his face now, as her words brought him back from the cold place he had retreated to inside himself. "I wouldn't... it's not like that. I love Jubilee."

"The emotions you're projecting are not love, Everett. Your thoughts are filled with hate and resentment. However," she said, forestalling another protest, "your feelings have no bearing on the current problem."

"I thought you just said that they were the problem."

She nodded. "The problem is that you're projecting those thoughts."

"Projecting? Like a telepath? I'm not--" He stopped as he realized what Emma was trying to convey. "You think that I've synched myself to you."

"Given the strength of your thoughts, yes. If you stop using your power, then the telepathic problem should be resolved." She paused for a moment, then continued in a softer voice. "If you wish to talk about your feelings, I'd be happy to assist you. However, I respect your privacy."

His fists were clenched in his lap. "I'll do that. I didn't realize I was affecting the others -- I just--" Everett broke off, closing his eyes to concentrate on reversing the synchronization process.

*You just couldn't see anyone outside yourself,* Emma thought, a little sadly. She doubted that Everett would want to talk about his feelings for Jubilee. He would most likely continue to wall himself away, a course of action that would benefit no one.

He opened his eyes. "Ms. Frost," Everett said, apprehensive. "I can't unsynch myself."

"So what you're saying is that Wolverine's going to be dumb enough to walk under that contraption, and then somehow you're going to manage to drop the glue on him -- without him first smelling it -- and then you're going to drop the feathers on him -- again, without him knowing they're there, and all while he just stands there and lets it happen?" Astalon asked, fists on her hips, staring up at the scaffolding that had been erected in the hallway.

"Um, basically yes, chica," Angelo replied defensively.

"And how far away are you planning on being when this happens?"

"Over there." He pointed to a recess in the hallway.

"About ten feet, then." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, so?"

"Which gives you -- what? -- maybe four to six seconds to live before Wolverine figures out what happened, realizes that you're there, and has you by the throat?" Angelo didn't respond to that, looking thoughtful for the first time in the brief conversation. "Good plan," Astalon commented sarcastically, seeing that one of her points had finally hit home. "Hope you have life insurance."

"You think you could do better?"

"I know I couldn't do worse." Coming from a person whose power resulted in disaster for her own teammates as often as it did for the bad guys, the statement was more of a joke than a threat.

Unfortunately, Angelo liked jokes. "So what do you have in mind?"

****

Wolverine's low voice rumbled underneath her, vibrating the part of her body resting against his chest. "I hate to be the one to tell you this, darlin', but we're going to have to get up sometime."

Jubilee sighed heavily. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Hunger calls and all that." She raised her head to look into his amused face. "If you'd made my stash of candy last longer, then it wouldn't be so much of a problem, y'know."

His hand ran soothingly over the bared skin of her back. "I seem ta recall havin' to pull rank to get you to give me any."

She arched her back against his touch, then smiled, remembering exactly what 'pulling rank' had entailed. "Geez, Wolvie, all you had to do was *ask*. 'Course, once you brought up that you were older than me, I just couldn't let a geezer like you starve."

"Geezer?" He grabbed her -- not that she was trying to get away -- and rolled on top of her, looking down at her with a playful snarl on his face. "*Geezer*?"

Jubilee was reaching up to touch his cheek and draw his face down for a kiss, when his expression went dark.

"Yeah, I suppose I am," he said seriously, all playfulness gone. "Don't know that I have any business bein' with someone as young as you."

Lightly, but with deep concern, Jubilee asked, "So, you think that if I'd fallen in love with someone like Ev then I'd be baking apple pies and raising kids and being all-American and having white picket fences and stuff like that? 'Cause, y'know, it's not likely to happen. We're, like, heroes and all that. 'Sides, I don't like apple pies."

He scowled at her. "There's nothin' wrong about wanting a family."

"Then why don't Scott and Jean have any kids?" Knowing that she'd struck a good point, Jubilee pressed her advantage. "We don't get ordinary, innocent lives -- their 'kid' is older than they are and not too cuddly unless you think sleeping with heavy weaponry is cool."

The scowl got fiercer. "*I* want kids."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'. Whaddaya got to say about that?"

Jubilee flinched as she realized what she was thinking. She said it anyway. "That maybe I'm too young for that yet? That maybe I don't really want to have kids right now?"

Logan closed his eyes, then slid off her, lying down on the bed. "That's what I thought."

Jubilee sat up and thumped him on the chest with her hand. It was her turn to lean over him. "So -- what? Are you in some sort of hurry? We've been together like a week and already you're talking about kids and all -- you gotta give me some time to adjust. Wolvie, you can't give up on me just because you want kids and I've never thought about it happening to me personally. An' we're supposed to talk about major relationship things before jumping into them. I mean, what's next? Are you going to start proposing before you've even taken me on a date?"

His eyes opened, a glint of humor replacing the coldness that had been there before. "I don't know. After going out with Gumbo, I might not live up to your standards."

She thumped him again, this time with a relieved smile now that the subject had changed to something more manageable. "Pleeeease don't remind me about that. What a mistake that was. All Remy wanted to talk about was candlelight and flowers and my eyes being reflecting pools of something or other and feelings and stuff. I was trying to decide whether stabbing him would get him to shut up."

"You got something against love, darlin'?"

Jubilee rested her head on his shoulder, curling up against him. "Nah. Not exactly. Well, maybe. Love's okay. I love you and there isn't any way you can get me to stop."

Logan hugged her tightly. "I love you too, Jubilation."

She rubbed her cheek against his chest, kissing it tenderly. "I know. But keep saying it anyway, okay?"

His chuckle rumbled under her cheek, and she stroked his chest gently before going on. "But love and thinking that you're in love and being in love with the whole idea of love aren't the same thing. That's what happened with Ev, y'know."

"What happened with who?" he asked, bristling automatically.

"Don't be jealous, Wolvie. It's over, and even if it wasn't, I want you." She raised herself up to look at him, face crinkling doubtfully. He had dumped her once already, and now there was the kids issue, and it wasn't like she was going to tie herself to him if he suddenly stopped liking her. She loved him; she didn't own him. "Unless you decide you don't want me."

"Ain't gonna happen," he replied, crushing her to him. "I learned my lesson."

"Cool. Anyway," she continued, after kissing him deeply and rather thankfully, "like I was saying, I'd gone through the loving the idea of love thing with Ev, so when Remy tried to pull it, I wasn't about to fall for it again. Even if he did it better than Everett ever had. When I dated Ev, he had this idea of who I was and that idea wasn't really me at all, even though he thought it was. He saw some surface things about me and acted like that that was all I was. To him, I was some sort of wise-cracking irrepressible person who could entertain him, who had, like, zero depth. And I was someone who he could protect from my own irresponsibility. And I'm not irresponsible." Jubilee stared at Wolvie. "Right?"

"Of course not," Logan said with a straight face.

"Uh-huh," she said, looking unconvinced. "So I wasn't that person, and I couldn't get him to start seeing me as who I am, and so I stopped dating him. 'Cause I wanted to be who I am and be loved for that. Not what someone thinks I am. I want to be myself. But he never gave up, I guess, 'cause he's acting even more protective than ever now, like you're going to hurt me or something. And maybe it did hurt when you left--" Logan pulled her closer, face nuzzling her hair, as he heard the still-felt anguish in her voice, "--but it was still my pain and my decision what to do and I'm not a little kid who needs to be taken care of."

"You never have been since I've known ya."

"'Course not. That's 'cause I was rescuing you when I met you."

"I'm still going to protect you, darlin'. Always have," he said, warning her.

She didn't need the warning; Jubilee knew that Wolverine protecting her didn't bother her the same way that Ev or Generation X protecting her bothered her. She considered the possible reasons why. "It's different with you. I got to be your partner when we were together." Jubilee thought about some of the things that she'd been put through since joining Gen X. "It's not the same here. I've been, like, nine years old ever since getting here and I've never grown up as far as anyone's concerned who was here when I started. And I don't want to end up living down to their expectations. I mean, who really cares about putting hair dye in Frosty's shampoo? I got better things to do with my life than that. Still get blamed though. It's like being Bobby Drake, although it's kinda cool that the Drakester left the X-Men and all that. Got to start over and build a new rep. That's what I want to do. Leave here with you and start over."

"Yer a kid t'the X-Men, too."

"At least they haven't been living with me -- maybe it'll be better." She remembered Cyclops' reaction to finding out that she and Wolvie were sleeping together and shook her head. "Or maybe not. But it doesn't matter. If you're the only one who can handle me being the way I am, then well, at least I get to be with you."

"That you do. As much as you can handle."

"More than that, I hope," she replied, grinning at him. "I want all of you, not just what I can handle." She stroked her hand down his chest, reaching his waist and dipping below it. "Hmm... look what I'm handling now. Think I can have that?"

"You can have anythin' you want, darlin'. You already got my heart."

And discussion of getting out of bed was put off yet again to a later time.

Several phone calls and a four-way telepathic merge later, Synch had been forcibly unsynchronized.

Emma sat back on the couch, her spine relaxing, but otherwise showed no outward sign of having been fazed by the ordeal. Immediately, she tested the results of their labor. She reached out mentally to Jono, who was relieved to hear that telepathic communication was once again functioning. *Finally,* she thought. "Thank you for your cooperation, Everett."

Everett slumped into his own chair, a dour look still wearing his face. "Yeah, I guess. At least I'm not hurting anybody now. You can all just ignore me and not have to worry about how I feel."

She clearly heard the unspoken portion of his statement, that he believed everyone would prefer to ignore him, and shook her head. "You are welcome to talk about your concerns with myself or Sean. You will not be ignored unless you choose to be."

He considered her statement -- giving it real consideration; she could tell. Hope peeked out from around the tremendous burden of depression and guilt that he carried. "At the moment, I think that's what I really want. Even if I didn't know I was doing it, I've been in everyone's faces all day, and I think I'd rather just be by myself for now."

"A wise decision," Emma agreed. "I hope you'll come to dinner." She reached for Jubilee, trying to assess her state of mind, to see whether the two young people would be able to reach some sort of accord over the meal, and met a mental block that was fraying around the edges. Emma's ethics about prying into people's minds were on the level of 'if they didn't want me to see inside their thoughts, then they should have had better defenses'. Jubilee's could be quite good when she tried. At the moment, however, mental leakage was spilling around the barrier the girl had erected, images of nakedness, and skin, and -- *Jubilee!*

Emma broke off the contact, aware she'd given the game away by shrieking into Jubilee's mind. "If you'll excuse me," she said, standing, "I have a little problem that needs to be dealt with."

****

Jubilee started giggling. "Man oh man, are we going to get it!"

Wolverine growled at her. She'd chosen a very sensitive juncture to start laughing at him. And the possibility of a threat didn't make him any happier. "What is it?"

"How fast can you get dressed?" she asked, grinning, while remaining where she was.

"Faster if you stop doing that."

"This?" she bounced on top of him, and his fingers tightened on her hips, proving that her moment of levity had not entirely broken his concentration on the act in progress.

"Yeah. That."

She slid her hands farther apart on his chest, giving herself a broader base of support. "I don't think we have very long 'til Ms. Frost decides to break the door down. Or gets a locksmith to do it, anyway."

"That was what you were screeching about? Emma?"

"I do not screech!" She pounded the heels of her hands against his chest, which only seemed to increase the speed of his thrusting against her. "And, yeah, that was her. I think she found out that you're here. Too bad she couldn't wait any longer."

"Darlin', I'm surprised that she didn't throw me out last night when I was waiting' for you."

Jubilee shivered. "But then you wouldn't have been able to apologize and we wouldn't be here, and I'd still think you weren't very nice, and everything would be all wrong..."

He growled at the thought, kissing her deeply, then rolled her over underneath him. "If we don't have much time left, then there's something I'd rather be doin' than talkin'."

"Like what?" she asked innocently, even as her hands ran down the line of his back to his naked buttocks, pulling him more fully against her.

His mouth swooped down on hers, answering her in silence, lips demanding a different sort of response than she had been giving him, even as his hips thrust powerfully into her.

Jubilee's nails bit into his skin, encouraging him, wanting him to give her as much passion as he was willing to show. Not as much as she wanted -- because she wanted all of Wolvie, even the parts he was afraid to show people, the parts that had kept him in hiding when he'd gone feral, the parts that were neither good nor bad, but just *him*.

****

Lying in each other's arms, resting, Logan and Jubilee's quiet conversation was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door.

Jubilee made a face. "Geez, sure took her long enough to get around to coming up here."

"Darlin', she's been standin' outside the door tapping her foot for the past five minutes or so."

Jubilee grinned suddenly. "Bet she got an earful. Wonder if she was enjoying herself?"

#*Were*, Jubilee,# came the telepathic response, correcting her grammar. #Now would you please open this door?#

Jubilee got up grumbling, shimmied into the yellow dress from the night before, and opened the door. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I believe you know what this is about, Jubilation," Emma said from the doorway, one arched eyebrow expressing her opinion of Wolverine, who was lounging comfortably on the bed, unclothed and unbothered by her presence.

"There's some sort of policy now about visitors?" Jubilee challenged, planting herself firmly between Emma and Logan.

Emma stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "What are you trying to hide? And why?"

Jubilee's brows furrowed. Why was Ms. Frost asking a question like that? Frosty knew what Jubilee was thinking -- had to have known, given the surge of telepathic outrage she'd felt -- what was she getting at? "I'm not hiding anything."

Emma's assessing gaze moved past Jubilee, to Wolverine, taking in each detail of his appearance before returning to Jubilee.

Jubilee flushed despite herself. So maybe the Frost-meister knew how to push some of her buttons. No, she hadn't exactly rushed to tell anyone that Wolvie was there, and that he'd apologized, and all, but she'd had her reasons. "I-- we made up. Everything's okay again."

"And so, I assume, you'll now be leaving us to return to New York with him?" Emma didn't wait for an answer, but continued in a cold, disapproving voice. "Keeping in mind, of course, that you can come running back here whenever the reality of life proves too much for you to handle?"

At one time, Jubilee might have responded with an outraged retort. Protesting loudly was certainly what everyone expected her to do -- as she'd told Wolvie, a lot of people around here refused to accept that she'd grown up, that *she* could ever grow up. But instead of replying hotly, Jubilee backed off. What was Frosty trying to get at here? Emma had been relatively kind and solicitous after Wolverine had deserted her on the front steps of the mansion -- Jubilee knew that Emma was concerned about her and her happiness, and had exhibited no problems at that time with Jubilee coming back to the fold. Either some sort of mindswitching had occurred, or Emma was concerned about her running into trouble again. And it wasn't hard to figure out where she might think that trouble would come from. Wolverine.

"You think I'm just gonna get hurt all over again," Jubilee said evenly. "That I'm just setting myself up to get dumped all over again. An' maybe that makes sense. It happened once, it could happen again -- that's what you're thinking, right?"

Emma inclined her head coolly, as if to say that she wasn't going to commit herself either way, but would grant the point for the sake of argument.

Jubilee continued. "So it probably wouldn't mean anything to you that Wolvie won't do it again, or that I trust him now and he trusts me. Or that I have to live my own life, and figure out some things the hard way, whether or not you like it. Whether or not *I* like it very much. Or that I'm just as scared that this is all going to blow up on me as you are worried about me, or that I know I have to take the chance anyway because there's a part of me all bound up with Wolvie and losing it hurts like having everything good and vibrant and alive cut out of me. But I hope this means something to you -- it makes me very angry--" more accurately, trembling all over with rage and nerves, "--that you'd do something as heartless as threatening me with the loss of the only home I've had in six years. 'Cause having a home means a lot to me. Having a family means a lot. An' I thought you and Generation X were it. An' if I shouldn't come running back here with my problems, well then, I guess you're not my family after all. Which'd mean you don't have any right to be giving me advice either. But--" she stared levelly at Emma, her arms crossed, "I hope that's not what you meant."

"Do you? Do you want my advice at all?"

Jubilee shrugged. "It won't change my mind."

Emma looked for a moment as though she might offer that advice anyway, but shook her head slightly instead. "I hope you're not expecting my blessing."

"I was just kinda hoping for a shoulder to cry on and all that." An amusing image occurred to Jubilee, and she glanced between Emma and Logan, smirking. "And, anyway, isn't it like traditional for parents to disapprove when their kids drag their boyfriends and girlfriends home?"

Emma's lips quirked into something that could have been a smile. "Do you have an answer for everything, Jubilation?"

Jubilee met that expression with a smile of her own. "Not yet."

"Hmph. Do join us for dinner. It would only be polite to do so, seeing as you--" she looked at Logan, "--are our guest, invited or otherwise."

"Sure thing," Wolverine acknowledged. "I was gettin' a mite hungry anyway."

"Yes," Emma said repressively, "well, I expect to see you then. Goodbye."

She left the room, closing the door behind her.

****

"That went more easily than I was expecting," Jubilee said, turning back to Wolvie and moving to sit next to him on the bed.

"More easily than I thought it could," Logan acknowledged.

Jubilee leaped at the explanation to explain the situation to him, hoping that doing so would clear things up in her own mind. "Well, see, you gotta understand that Ms. Frost really does like us all. She's kinda stiff on the outside still, but she cares, she really does."

"That's why she was about ta try ta throw me out the door then?"

Jubilee flashed on *that* image and grinned. Emma wrestling with a naked Wolverine. Could be entertaining. "Right. She wouldn't bother coming up here to yell if she didn't care. It's not like it matters to her who's sleeping with what." The what was more figurative than literal, although with some mutants and some alien species, you never really did know if they actually counted as a person or not. Not that Jubilee was into that kind of thing, although matters *had* gotten a mite confusing with the talking cabbage thing with the mental powers -- it'd had quite the seductive.... *mind*. But attraction to vegetables was just too weird for her.

Wolverine ignored the strange statement. "Ya love her, kid?"

Jubilee nodded. "Sounds silly, doesn't it?"

"Nah. Sounds perfectly natural."

She leaned into the warmth of his body and hugged him tightly. "Good. I don't understand it, but it's there and I don't want to change it. Not ever."

"Okay by me."

"I feel the same way about Sean, y'know."

A possessive growl rippled through him. "Now *that* I might have a problem with."

Jubilee giggled. "But he's ever so much more cuddly than Frosty."

"That's exactly what I'm having the problem with."

She giggled more loudly. "An' he's cuter too, if you like that kind of thing."

"Gonna get himself uncute pretty soon here."

"Wolvie, you're not... *jealous* are you?" Jubilee asked, pretending to be shocked.

"And if I am?" he asked, pulling her down on top of him, and rolling her over until his body was covering hers, and his face inches from her own.

She screwed up her eyebrows, as if in deep thought. "I guess I'll just have to kiss you."

Yawning and scrubbing at her eyes, Jubilee stepped down from the staircase into the main entry way of the Massachusetts Academy, on her way to dinner with the rest of Generation X. It was nearly 6 p.m., and she was more tired now than she had been the night before, prior to going to her room.

Of course, the fact that she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night might have something to do with that, she reminded herself.

The cause of her lack of sleep descended the staircase behind her, looking gruff as usual. They'd both had a shower, and his drying hair was beginning to stick up from where it'd been slicked down against his head. Wolvie appeared irritable, hungry and unapproachable -- at least, to anyone who didn't look beyond his rough features to notice the smiling lines of his mouth and the crinkle to his eyes. Jubilee did.

She grinned at him. "C'mon, slowpoke, no one's going to bite you."

"You sure about that, darlin'?" he asked, head tilted as if to catch a sound from the hallway beyond.

"Sure, I'm sure. Hit you certainly, try to kill you maybe, even slice and dice you if nobody hid the knives. But not *bite* you," Jubilee said merrily, tugging on his hand and leading him toward the kitchen.

Logan grinned back. "So yer sayin' there's going to be some after-dinner entertainment then. You shouldn't have, darlin'."

"Well, I wanted you to feel at home," Jubilee joked. One of Wolverine's favorite forms of entertainment was going out to a bar for a beer and a brawl. It *was* kinda funny to imagine him at dinner, plates being flung around as various people went flying through the windows. She turned somber. On the other hand, there was the matter of the revenge upon the Wolvster that had been sworn by the various members of GenX... "Y'know, the 'We Hate Wolverine' Society is probably still out in force."

"What society?" he asked, looking suspicious.

"Well, see, people kinda took it personally that you dumped me, and well, um..." she shrugged. "It's just what I've been calling them -- Angelo and Paige and Ev and all those guys been jumping on me and telling me that you're awful and that they want to get back at you and stuff like that."

His expression remained suspicious, which was a more-or-less neutral look for Wolverine. "An' you went along with this?"

"Nah," she said, squeezing his hand in quick reassurance. "It's not that I didn't think you *deserved* it," she said, grinning slightly at him, "but I thought that if there was going to be any kind of revenge, then I should be the one to do it. More satisfying that way. Having everyone else want to beat up on you..." she shivered. "I couldn't stand that. I'd break out in spots or something. Guess that doesn't make much sense to you that I was mad at you but I didn't want anyone else to be."

He drew her into his arms and kissed her soundly. "I get the idea."

Jubilee smiled as he released her. She was probably just making a big deal out of nothing. 'Sides, there was nothing that the Wolvster couldn't handle. Even her teammates. "Great! So let's eat!"

With that issue resolved, they made their way to the kitchen. Wolverine would have liked to keep Jubilee tucked into the corner of his arm, but every time he tried to snare her, she would mold against him for a few moments before returning to the exuberant bouncy stride that pulled her away from him. She retained her hold on his hand, but couldn't repress her excitement.

Turning the corner, Logan let himself be tugged along, enjoying Jubilee's obvious happiness. *I hope her friends don't spoil this for her,* he growled to himself. *She's too happy now, an' I made her too sad earlier. She deserves to be happy.*

Caught up in his thoughts, pulled along by Jubilee, and not expecting an attack, the first warning he got of danger was the sight of a handful of glitter dusting the air as it floated to the floor.

Glitter? What the hell?

He looked up and saw a platform above him. For a moment, he was disoriented. After all, glitter was scarcely the kind of attack he was used to. But a set-up was a set-up any way you looked at it, and his nose was catching bits of scents he didn't like very much. Especially combined with Jubilee's earlier warning. Swearing under his breath at the bad timing of amateurs, Wolverine sprang forward, pushing Jubilee out of the way, trying to get the both of them to safety before the prank -- whatever it was -- could be unleashed upon them.

As he did, he brushed against the wall -- which moved, first slowly and then in heavy shudders.

Slamming into the floor and knocking the breath out of Jubilee, who was under him, Logan risked a look up and back. The wall seemed to be coming apart, and he then noticed the scaffolding that had blended in with the wall. Cursing, he realized that he and Jubilee didn't have time to move -- they were going to be underneath it when it fell.

He put his head down, nuzzling his face into the side of her neck, and hoped that the protection of his body would be enough to keep her safe.

Jubilee was breathing heavily under him but didn't move. She shuddered as she felt multiple impacts hit the body covering hers, and squeezed her eyes shut when she felt him go limp. Unconscious. *Way to go, team,* she thought bitterly. *So they really do hate him.*

Voices started shouting. Jubilee tried not to choke on the dust and glitter suspended in the air. Geez. Talk about overkill.

#Are you all right, gel?# Jono's telepathic voice said, contacting her.

#Yes,# she sent in reply, then added, #But I think Wolvie's hurt. Not that you'd care.#

She felt him first recoil, then shut down the connection between them. *Serves him right,* she thought.

Multiple hands lifted the weight of debris from her, then finally, moved Logan's body. Jubilee remained there for a moment, readjusting to the sensation of being able to breathe freely, then slowly levered herself up. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she looked around.

The hallway was totally destroyed. Wreckage littered the area. Beams and girders and metal and wood and all sorts of things, including broken furniture, lay shattered in a massive heap of debris. It looked like a Juggernaut convention had come to town. Curiously, though, in the center of the worst of the mess, there was a circle completely free of damage.

Sean bent over her, looking concerned. "Are you all right?"

Jubilee ignored him. "Where's Wolvie? I want to see Wolvie."

The headmaster stepped back gingerly, avoiding the heaped rubble, and then Jubilee saw Logan. Tears filled her eyes. He was bleeding profusely. His body was turned away from her, and she could see where parts of the metal scaffolding had been driven into his back. She couldn't see his face, and scrambling to her knees, she knelt over him, unaware that she was whispering his name over and over again.

"Oh God, you've got to be all right. Logan. *Wolvie*, please be okay." She looked at his face for the first time. His eyes were shut, and he didn't open them as she spoke to him. Shocked, all she could do was to wrap her arms around him and hold him. Some small sensible part of her knew that his healing factor meant that he would likely be all right. Knew that the best thing to do would be to let go of him so that he could be taken to the infirmary and have his wounds cleaned out so that they could heal faster. She'd seen him heal from worse. And yet, all she could do was cry and rock his body in her arms. It hurt so much to see him injured less than a day after they'd solidified their relationship, as though recognition of the bond between them increased, rather than lessened, the pain.

"Jubilee..." Sean said, touching her shoulder.

She didn't let him finish, shaking him off. Looking up, she saw that all of Generation X had gathered to see the disturbance. Her eyes picked out the people who'd been loudest in putting down the Wolvster. Everett. Monet. Angelo. Jono. "You happy now?" she asked, knowing she was angry and not caring. "Is this what you wanted? To hurt him? 'Cause you did it. An' I'm not going to forget it."

She was about to start into an angry tirade when she felt Emma's touch on her mind, silencing her. Outraged, she stared at the headmistress.

#He's alive, Jubilation,# Ms. Frost said coolly to her alone. #And your teammates did not intend to harm him in this fashion. Wait until you have recovered from this shock before taking your revenge upon them. They are truly sorry that this has happened.#

Jubilee snorted, but gave up after giving the assembled group one last glower. It was useless fighting Frosty on her own terms. And Wolverine was more important to her anyway. #I'm not gonna forget,# she said, aiming one last parting shot at Emma, as Sean lifted Logan from the floor.

#I haven't asked you to do so.#

Jubilee followed Sean away from the others, leaving silence in her wake.

****

Emma turned to her students. One long level look reduced them all to staring at their feet. "I won't ask you what you have to say for yourselves, as nothing you could say would influence my opinion. Angelo, Jonothan -- I assume you used the earlier disruption in telepathic communication to conceal your activities from me, as I sincerely doubt the veracity of your earlier excuse. This was in no way sanctioned by Sean."

Angelo and Jono, covered in the glue and glitter they had planned to dump on Wolverine, winced.

"However, you seem to have found your own punishment. I suggest a sincere apology to Miss Lee, and then perhaps several hours cleaning up the mess that you have made."

Emma turned to Everett. "I suggest you help your friends, as this at least in part was due to your influence upon them."

Monet received a level glance. The Algerian girl had entered the hall only after all of the damage had already been done, and looked as innocent -- and self-satisfied -- as a cat sunning itself on a window sill. Paige seemed ready to run after Jubilee, her face full of concern as she studied her shoes. Emma passed her over, as well as the younger members of the team, to settle on Astalon.

Astalon, who had been at the center of the destruction, and yet remained untouched by it.

"I assume," Emma said, "that we have you to blame for the unexpected alteration in your teammates' plan?" It was a rhetorical question. Astalon's mutant power, such as it was, was that she could not be harmed. Not invulnerable, her power instead worked in subtle and often disastrous ways to keep her from danger. Such as, perhaps, the redirection of one very heavy scaffolding away from her and onto someone else.

"Very well," Emma concluded. "All of you are assigned to aid in cleaning up this mess. I'm sure the experience will do you good. I expect those of you personally at fault to apologize to Logan." She turned, and stalked away.

Angelo shuddered. "Apologize to *Wolverine*?! Man, I'd rather go out and slit my throat myself."

"It would be one way of solving the problem," Monet observed. "If you had consulted me, I would have informed you that this plan would not work."

"You had a better idea?" Angelo challenged.

"Of course."

A tendril of skin snaked around behind the group to grab a mysteriously unused pot of glitter. It was dumped onto Monet, who looked distinctly offended. Punkin and Kiwi joined in, scooping up what had fallen to the ground and throwing it around.

Then the screaming started.

"What do you think that is?" Sean Cassidy asked his fellow teacher, as faintly heard screaming drifted into where they stood, outside the infirmary, waiting for Wolverine to recuperate as they talked privately about their students.

Emma Frost, the headmistress of the school and a vision in the white leather that constituted the main part of her dominatrix persona, concentrated. "I believe that a glitter fight is in progress."

Sean sighed deeply. "If I didna already have Terry, I'd never have children."

Emma regarded him, amused. She knew he had a deep affection for their students, even in trying times like these. "I'll be sure to keep that advice in mind."

"Nae. You'd make a wonderful mother, Emma."

"Of course I would. I already have a fine collection of whips."

Sean sputtered, and then laughed openly, breaking the tension that had settled over them since first hearing the crash in the hallway and seeing Jubilee and Wolverine buried under the rubble.

"The difficult part," Emma observed after a moment, "is letting them go."

"Yes, that it is," he agreed, sighing again. "That it is."

****

Logan's eyes had begun opening drunkenly from the moment he was laid down on the bed in the infirmary. Jubilee had assisted Sean in cleaning the wounds made by the falling debris, then jealously perched herself in a chair placed by Logan's head as soon as the headmaster was out of the room.

"Hey, darlin'."

"Hey, yourself," Jubilee said, smiling, her eyes still half-full of the tears she'd shed when she had first seen his injuries. But when she spoke, her words held nothing of the concern she felt for him. He'd taken worse, and he didn't appreciate being babied. And she needed to believe that. "So what are you lying there like a wussy for? Can't the big tough Wolverine take a little bit of a building dropping on him?"

"You got a smart mouth on ya."

"You're just noticing that? Wow. You must've been hit harder than I thought."

He grimaced, and pulled himself up so that he was sitting crosswise on the bed. "There's no good way to get hit by a building, darlin'."

"I woulda thought you could outrun a building," Jubilee said, the humor making her feel better. "I mean, it's an inanimate object. That means it's slow, y'know. You lettin' yourself get out of shape?"

"It's the momentum," he said solemnly, then scowled. "I feel like givin' somebody a piece of my mind for that."

"How big of a piece?"

His claws snapped out. "About that much."

"Well, that's good. I don't think anybody here had that much brains to start with -- if you give them that much, then maybe they'll do better next time. 'Course, used Wolverine brains prolly aren't worth as much as say, highly-educated accountant brains like the Drakester's."

He snorted, and retracted his claws. "I'm takin' this very seriously. Maybe your teammates have a problem with me -- I can handle that. They want to come to me, we can talk." The flexing of his hands was a clear indication of what kind of talking he planned to do. "But they coulda killed you, an' that's something we're gonna haveta discuss."

Jubilee shook her head. She hadn't thought about that. She'd focused on her concern for Logan -- and, in any case, the idea of her friends deliberately trying to harm her was... well, up until right now, it'd been... unthinkable? Okay, well, not unthinkable. It had, after all, happened before. But she would have expected them to go after her directly, or be possessed by weird alien dudes, or something like that. "They couldn't have wanted to kill anybody..." Memory prompted her with some of the conversations she'd had with the 'We Hate Wolverine' Society. "...well, they wouldn't have wanted to kill *me*."

He stared at her, his blue eyes disconcertingly clear and piercing. She squirmed. "Oh, c'mon," she said finally. "It's not like you haven't been attacked before by the X-Men for the same thing. Remember Viper?"

Logan ran a hand through his hair, leaving it more rumpled than before. "Yeah. I remember."

"I wish I didn't."

"Me too, darlin'."

"So--" Jubilee asked, her mouth twitching in the beginnings of a mischievous grin, as some of the tension left the room. "Does this mean dinner with my family is off?"

****

A less than happy ensemble met around the dinner table. Wolverine's scowling visage fit right in, neatly countering the palely terrified faces of the chief three conspirators -- Angelo, Jono and Astalon -- who had been threatened respectively with castration, further adventures in castration, and evisceration.

Jubilee grinned, looking down at her plate to hide it. Wolvie's nose could not be fooled -- he'd known who had been responsible for the faulty scaffolding -- and he'd singled the Tricky Trio out before dinner to have a little "talk" with them. He'd been more relaxed after that -- she'd seen him growl at Emma where he'd merely ignored her before. Obviously, he was starting to be in a better mood.

Everett could barely look at her, Artie was doing their best to distance himself from the disaster -- and, Jubilee thought, two sets of long claws -- while Kiwi and Punkin were also affected by the strained atmosphere, and kept quietly to themselves. Paige was hanging all over Jubilee, trying to make up for her teammates' behavior by her concern. Really, only Frosty and Monet were acting halfway normally -- Monet behaving like she was above all of it, and Emma serenely ignoring everything.

"Are you still leaving, then?" Paige asked, twisting at her napkin. "I mean, you were going to before, and now," she glanced quickly at Logan and back down again, "well, are you?"

"Yeah," Jubilee said. She considered what else to say, and couldn't think of anything. "It seems like the right thing to do."

"But you want to, don't you?" Paige asked. She avoided looking at Wolverine, which was difficult, because he was sitting next to Jubilee and, at the moment, glowering right at her. "You really do want to go, you aren't just going because you feel you have to, or anything like that?"

"I want to be with Wolvie. And," Jubilee said, smiling wryly and waving a hand in the direction of the infamous hallway, "I just don't think things'd work out if we stayed here."

"Not to mention that you might be required to continue studying at the college level," Emma added dryly.

Jubilee looked up at the ceiling, as if praying for divine assistance. Unfortunately, it seemed to be Archangel's night off. "Like a degree in Liberal Arts would really be useful for anything. If I ever got kicked out of the superhero biz, I could do, what? Be the most literate person in line at the welfare office? Uh-uh. I don't think so."

"I've always thought," Emma continued, unruffled, "that you would do well as an attorney."

The look of horror was genuine. "A *lawyer*?! Do you hate me or what?"

Emma smiled. "Just think, you could go into politics. Perhaps even become President someday."

"Supreme Justice Jubilee," Angelo added. "You can pardon all your friends when we get in trouble."

"You people have sick, sick minds," Jubilee said firmly.

#President Lee and First Lady Wolverine,# came a stray thought from Jono's direction.

Sean sputtered, and Angelo laughed outright. Jubilee grinned at the thought of Wolvie in one of Emma's business suits, then lost it completely, giggling so hard that she had trouble breathing. "Just think... of the... pantyhose."

Logan looked appalled, then grinned back. "So the college thing is off then."

"It's sounding better and better every minute," Jubilee choked out.

Emma set down her fork. "I have a course outline you could peruse."

She couldn't take it. She really couldn't take any more of this. Jubilee wiped the tears from her eyes. "So, you think I'll get cute bodyguards in the Secret Service, or do you think I'll have to draft some?"

"Draft," Paige said.

Angelo nodded. "Draft."

Wolverine snaked his arm around Jubilee, and she looked at him. His craggy features promised her all the protection she'd ever need. Although she supposed there might be some argument over his cuteness factor. But not from her. "You know, I think that's something I won't have to worry about."

"Bodyguards?"

"No, finding a cute one."

Dinner continued to be eaten. Astalon finally ventured the question that was on the minds of every member of The Society. "So, do you really like *him*? --" she nodded at Logan, "--and why are you going back with him? How do you know he isn't going to hurt you all over again?"

Apparently, the threat of evisceration hadn't worked.

Conversation stilled, as they waited to hear Jubilee's answer. Jubilee was aware of the tension in the arm holding her. She felt some of it herself. Were they going to be quizzed by every mutant on the Eastern Seaboard about the state of their love-life? "I love Wolvie. Yeah, I'm going back, and thirdly, that's a dumb question."

Emma looked at her. "I think it's a very good question, Jubilation."

Jubilee made a face. "Y'know, once I'm off the team, you're gonna have to like call me by my code name. It's Jubilee. Get used to it."

"The question," Emma prompted. "I know you've told me your reasoning, but I think the others would appreciate knowing as well."

Darn. She hadn't been able to distract the Frost-meister. 'Course, there hadn't been much chance of *that* succeeding. "Because relationships hurt. Wolvie's probably going to hurt me and I'm probably going to hurt him. Magically perfect love doesn't exist, or if it does, it doesn't last once reality comes into the picture. The important thing is that we're going to try to work things out together from now on."

#Gel, that was almost... insightful.#

There were some surprised nods from around the table, except from the White Queen, who only looked smug.

Jubilee chuffed under her breath, and leaned back against Wolverine. "Whaddid I tell ya?" she asked him. "The last thing they expect from me is maturity."

He grinned. "Their loss, darlin'."

****

Twelve hours later, Jubilee and Logan were ready to hit the road, staying longer having been deemed as A) too cramped in Jubilee's twin bed, and B) too hard on the emotional state of the school's occupants. With arrangements having been made to ship her belongings to Westchester, all Jubilee had really needed to do was pack a duffle bag with a few immediate essentials to cover the transit time of her parcels.

Jubilee frowned as Wolverine secured her bag to his motorcycle. The questioning of her peers had gotten to her. And then there was the memory of Logan having ridden off on this very motorcycle only days before, leaving her behind. "Do you think everything's really going to be okay?"

He shrugged. "Nope. Things go wrong all the time."

"How comforting." Of course, he was sorta right about that. A superhero's life was rarely dull. Quite the opposite. She tried to imagine explaining the amount of on-the-job stress that they got to a psychologist. 'Yes, doctor, my classmate merged with her psychopathic brother and attempted to eat me. I've suffered recurring nightmares ever since, especially after being surrounded by energy-eating monsters last year in Boston.' No. Couldn't picture it. Not without the psychologist's head exploding or going in circles or something. "Life isn't fair."

"Who'd want it to be?" He straightened up. "Way I figure it, if life was fair, I'd be dead several times over. Sometimes we get what we deserve, but most of the time, we don't. Else, how would I have you?"

Jubilee pondered that for a moment. She *still* hadn't served any time for her juvenile stint at shop-lifting, after all. And then there was the incident with the tuna... "Good point. Still..." She put on the extra helmet that Logan carried on his bike.

"What?" he looked expectantly at her.

"I kinda think I do deserve you."

He grinned, a lazy smile that crinkled the smooth skin of his face and uncrinkled the wrinkled skin. "Well, then, I guess I feel sorry for you."

"Hey!" Jubilee swatted him.

He caught her hands easily, swinging her into his arms for a kiss. "Just think of it this way, -- if your teammates were upset at me, you'd better believe that mine are going to be worse."

"Why?" she asked reasonably. "I'm happy, you're happy. What's there to be mad about?"

Logan grinned. "Nothin' at all, darlin'. Nothing at all."



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