The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Chapter Twenty Four (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, Uberbeta, and German Kitty Poker… it just gets earlier each night! ;) InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly and fantabulous for archiving/hosting! ProPhile is a sparkley smutmuse and gets oodles of glomps for being so muse-y. Morgan: *swoons for the Lizard King* ;) Readers/Reviewers: Thank you sooooooooo much! *glomps everyone* And the Killer Kitties™ have called a truce with the ducks, so I think we can breathe easy for a while… ;)

Jubilee flipped through her CDs restlessly. “This one is too hard, this one is too soft…”
“C’mon, Goldilocks,”1 Emma ordered, standing in the doorway. “We’re leaving in ten minutes and I’m sure you don’t want to catch the second car with the boys.”
Jubilee rolled her eyes. She honestly did not care which car she rode in. She was too consumed with worry about how to get out of the hole she had dug for herself with her impromptu proposal to Remy. “Fine, fine. I’m coming…” She grabbed a handful of CDs and shoved them in her backpack, adding her digital camera for good measure, just in case. “How long’s the drive anyway?” she sighed, a note of annoyance already tingeing her voice.
“Long enough to mean you’re sitting as far away from me as possible,” Emma smiled sweetly, disappearing ahead of her down the stairs.
Jubilee had a snarky reply ready on her lips when her duffle bag whizzed by her, making her jump. “God damn it, Emma,” she cried, clutching at her heart reflexively. “Don’t do that _Sorcerer’s Apprentice2_ crap!” The only reply she received was a silvery laugh from somewhere around the landing, her duffle bag zipping past her in hot pursuit of Emma. “I hope it whacks you in the head,” the Asian girl muttered vindictively.

“What’s with you?” St John yawned, belatedly covering his mouth as he regained some control over his morning breath again. “Your hair’s all floopy.”
“So?” she snapped, chomping down on a fresh piece of gum. “Maybe I *wanted* floopy hair!”
St John rolled his eyes. “Okay, whatever. Don’t take your lack of morning routine out on me.” He shrugged and popped his shoulders in one movement. “You ever been to Boston before?”
“Not in this life time,” she replied, buckling in. They were in the very last seat of the minivan, or as some of the students referred to it, “tangible evidence of evil.”3 Jubilee popped her gum once before she allowed herself to relax, stretching her short legs out as far as they could reach and letting her head loll back against the seatback. “I don’t get it… why all this fuss about keeping us here so we can study all summer then they send us off to Boston like this. Something’s up, ya know?”
It had not been what St John expected and rather hoped that she would reveal to him on their tro Boo Boston, but it was a place to start. “Maybe they’re culling. You know, cut the wheat from the chaff and all that.” He shrugged anew, showing how little the idea bothered him, “Or maybe Emma needs free labor to move her Aubusson rugs or something.” He slid a sideways glance at Emma, who was already staring at him via the rearview mirror. “Shuttingupnow,” he muttered, sinking low into his seat.
Jubilee sighed and let her head roll to rest against the cool glass of the window as the vehicle backed down the drive. Hopefully, it would be a quiet trip during which she could consider things… “Is that a new bike out there?” she asked distractedly, sure that she was imagining things.”
“Not new,” Emma informed her. “Belladonna arrived last night with a guest in tow…” She trailed off and glanced at Jubilee in the mirror. She did not have the heart to tell her that Remy had left with Belladonna shortly after everyone else had gone to bed save for her and Logan.
Jubilee nodded stiffly. “’kay.” She sighed softly and closed her eyes. It took a great dint of will not to be jealous, but she managed to keep the green eyed monster down to a dull roar. At least for the moment. They swung out onto the black top road and were officially underway. Forge sat beside Emma in the front seat, murmuring over a map, and a few of the other students already had head phones on and were lost to the world for a while. Jubilee slid further down in her seat until she was even with St John. “How do you keep from doing stupid shit around Bobby?” she asked softly but plaintively.
“Have we met?” he deadpanned, holding out his hand as if to shake hers. “My name is St John Allerdyce and I’m the KING of Stupid Shit.”
Jubilee managed a snort. “I’m not sure I want to shake your hand if that’s what you’re king of.” She did elbow him gently in the ribs, though, belying her tone. “So… really…”
“I don’t. Jubilee…” he shifted so that he was sitting up straighter, looking directly into her eyes. She froze under his intense gaze. “Look, Jubes, yeah you sort of scared the bejeezus out of Remy but you can’t just dwell on it. The way I see it, you have three options here. One,” he paused for effect, “do nothing.”
“I can do that, no problem,” she sighed.
“Two, pretend it never happened and just continue on as you were beforehand. And three… talk to him. Really talk to him. No nudity, no touching, no mournful baying on the Moors… Just talk to him and tell him why you jumped the gun like that and you’re happy to wait as long as it takes.”
Jubilee nodded slightly. “Easy enough for you to say,” she replied, even as she agreed. “You didn’t fuck up like I did.”
“It’s not a fuck up,” he said tartly. “It’s a learning device.”
Jubilee sat up straight, eyes alight with a new idea. St John felt scared all of a sudden. “Hey… you and Bobby are happy, yeah?” She did not even wait for the affirmative. “You can tell me how to act to keep things good and happy!”
St John shook his head frantically. “No. No way, no how. Does this shirt say Svengali4 on it? Didn’t think so. No way in the seven hells, Jubilee!”
“I’ll get Scott off your back about taking that small engine repair class.”
“Not good enough.”
“I’ll…” she paused for a moment, frantically searching for something to offer St John in return. Slowly, she grinned. “I won’t tell Bobby what you have in the back of your closet in the gray lock box.”
St John paled visibly. “First lesson starts tonight.”


1 Golidlocks and the Three Bears… “This bed is too soft! This bed is too hard! This bed is juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust right!”
2 Part of Fantasia, where Mickey Mouse channels an ancient Sumerian legend and causes havoc in the sorcerer’s workspace. Involves dancing brooms and buckets…
3 A bumper sticker I saw once “Minivans are tangible evidence of evil.”