Lullaby

Two weeks later...

The nausea and vomiting had finally gone away much to Jubilee's relief, though the nightmares remained as strong as ever.

It was Saturday, and Jubilee was taking advantage of sleeping in. It was now 11:00pm, and she still didn't feel like getting out of bed. The sheets felt too nice to separate herself from them. Not only that, but she hadn't vomited that day, so that was a plus.

Wide awake, she groaned and rolled over, wincing as she did so. Her stomach muscles ached in protest to her sudden movement. She stretched out underneath her covers, an attempt to alleviate - and test - the strength of her pain. It hurt worse as she straightened and laid on her stomach. It felt as if she had rolled over a pig-pong ball, and she felt as if she were stretching muscles and tendons that she didn't even knew existed.

Unable to take laying on her stomach anymore, she rolled over and ran her hand tentatively over her stomach, right below her navel. It didn't even feel like it was there as far as her hand was concerned. But the muscles in her stomach had noticed. Her appetite had noticed. And her bladder had definately noticed. It was as if the bathroom was her second home now. It was frustrating to have her body change on her when changes weren't wanted.

When she realized she was pregnant, she quickly estimated that she was two months along, and found the clinic number the very next day and promised she would make an appointment and take care of it. She had the phone number to the abortion center written on her personal calendar, waiting to be dialed at any time. She always told herself tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow, and then put it off again and again.

That was two weeks ago, and she hadn't called yet. She was procrastinating. Her lips formed a thin line, and she looked down at her still-flat stomach. When would she start showing, anyway? Four months, right? That meant she had some time left, before anyone noticed. Time was ticking, she knew that. But she could never manage to pick up the phone and dial.

She was just too scared to. Furthermore, she wasn't sure if she could go through with it. Could she kill another life - one completely innocent - something that half belonged to Wolverine? What would he think if he ever found out she aborted his child? These questions were constantly plaguing her. She almost expected for someone to pick up on her thoughts, and that frightened her even more. But she was careful at keeping her mental guards up and making sure that no one eavesdropped on her thoughts and fears. The last thing she needed was either Monet or White Queen finding out.

"Well, no one will find out." She bit her bottom lip, reconsidering. She should tell Wolverine... but then again, why bother if she was going to abort it? She knew she should tell him, just for honesty's sake - but that would unnecessarily hurt him. And what would be the point of that? Christ, he was like a father to her! Being in that prison was painful enough for the both of them, and she didn't want him to hurt anymore.

Jubilee looked down at her stomach, speaking to the little life she knew rested there. "No one will ever have to know."

---

Paige had nothing better to do. She stared at her mirror in her large, pouffy-pink nightshirt. She made pouty faces at herself, trying to mimic the feeling she felt inside. "Boo-hoo, nobody wants me," she said in a boopsie voice, making fun of herself. She had learned that trait from her mother - whenever she was feeling sorry for herself, she went to the mirror and made faces at it, making light of her woes. It actually made her feel better - at least, it did when she was seven.

She blew her bangs out of her way, her shoulders relaxing. She didn't feel any better. It seemed is af the older she got, the less it worked. Her thoughts had rested on Jono more and more lately, and those thoughts were like iron eights, weighing her down. Jono had been closed off to her for weeks, avoiding contact with her outside anything but study and practice.

If he had given her a reason for avoiding her, that would be at least something.

She heard a knock at the door. "It's open," she said, knowing that it was Monet and not one of the guys. Monet had a very polite knock. The boys usually pounded on the door noisily, and Jubilee didn't believe in knocking.

"Are you through feeling sorry for yourself? I can feel you across campus." She said in an irritating tone, closing the door.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to broadcast." She looked back at her mirror, then made another pouty face. It only made her look cuter - not sadder. "Wah." She said, in another boopsie voice.

Monet watched, intrigued by the psychology of it. "That can't possibly help." She said with one delicate eyebrow raised.

"Not at all."

"So why do it? It's annoying."

"Why not? If you don't like it, you can always go back from where you came."

Monet let out a sigh. "I'm tired of feeling your grim emotions every time I turn a corner."

Paige put her hands on her back, twirling around to face Monet. "I know, I'm sorry. It's not that much fun for me, either. It's just that ..." She bit her bottom lip, wondering if she could trust Monet with her more girlish secrets. Monet looked up at her, waiting, the picture of female curiosity. She looked trustworthy enough. "It's as if everyone in this entire school has had sex but me." She plopped down on her bed, feeling much better that she finally admitted it. "I want to save it for Jono. But he's so closed off, and I'm hearing all the other students talking about it and..." She fell silent.

"...You want to know what it feels like." Monet finished for her. Paige confirmed with a nod. "Well, you want to know what it feels like, but keep your virginity intact for Jono, I see there's only one solution to that problem."

Paige turned to look at her, suprised. There was a solution to that kind of a problem? How could she know what sex was like without losing her virginity?

Monet let out a laugh. "I'll give you my memories." She winked.

Paige paled at the suggestion, speechless in shock. Monet didn't just say that. She didn't. She couldn't. Sex was a private thing - to be shared by only two people. Who would want to share something that special? It was so inappropriate. So ... wrong. It was like stealing candy from someone you knew. But ... if someone was offering it ... "You would do ... that ... for me? Why?"

"I'm feeling gracious. And I'm very sick of hearing you mope." She put a finger to her lips, her telepathy flaring to life above her head. "Close your eyes."

---

Angelo Espinosa hated pissing in the dark. He liked to see what he was aiming at. The thought of him missing the toilet made him feel like he was three years old again, and it felt unnatural. Being afraid of missing the toilet just shouldn't happen to a grown man.

What was worse than that, though, was that he knew the light had been burned out for at least two weeks and never got around to changing it. And it wasn't as if the light burned out - the whole bulb was shattered.

"Who broke the light in here?" And who would want to, for that matter? How could someone break something so far up?

Angelo stretched his fingers high above him and unscrewed the lightbulb gingerly. He threw the broken lightbulb in the trash and pulled out a new one from the cupboards. After screwing the new bulb in, the light flicked on, blinding him. "AIIYE!" He shrieked, covering his eyes. He blinked a few times until the purple and green spots faded away from his vision.

Then he froze, knitting his brows together. Did he just see what he thought he did...? He tapped the swinging trash can lid and peeked inside. Pregnancy test. Ooh, and a positive one. Yup, some unlucky student chiquita somewhere forgot to take her pill or something equally stupid. He shoved his hands into his pockets, shaking his head. "My condolences to you, chica, whoever you are." He said, then left the bathroom, flicking the light off.

---

"Oohh," Paige's head lilted to the side, eyes closed and fluttering. Monet's back stiffened, trying to control herself. The telepathic link she had created with Paige - allowing her to share memories - was feeding back into her, letting her experience her memories as strongly as the first time.

"Mmm," Paige sighed, not wanting it to stop. She felt everything Monet had; the love, the ecstacy. It was a chore not to touch herself, and Monet was having the same difficulty. Monet slid her hand over her won breast, aching for physical contact. She breathed heavily, and so did Paige, who had sat on her hands to keep herself from doing anything indecent in the presence of Monet.

When the memory died, Paige's eyes fluttered open, the sensation of satisfaction washing over her. She was hot and slippery between her legs with arousal. "Oh," she breathed, "it's better than I thought." She turned to look at Monet, who had a hungry element in her eye. "Is it like that every time?"

Monet's face cracked into a grin, full of mischief. "It gets better." And it did - Monet and Everett were inexperienced, but the more they made love the better sex was. It left them craving more.

And now Paige had her wish - She was still celibate for Jono, but her eyes were now open, fitted with memories she could access whenever she wished to revisit them. Her eyes misted with tears, grateful for Monet's gift.

"Thank you, Monet. I mean it. Thank you."

---

"When would you like them to come over?" Emma scribbled on her notepad, Xavier's voice ringing in her ear. "No, it can't be next thursday, or any day after that. I'm booked. How about three weeks? Is that acceptable?"

She laid her pen down and picked up the paper, studying it. "December the eighteenth, then. I'll let them know. Thank you." She hung up the phone and pinned the paper on her cork board. December fifteenth - it was special combat training. They would go to the Mansion and show the Professor and Scott how much they have improved.

Husk was incredible with her skin-shedding ability. She had, at one time, taken the form of adamantium during a training session. Monet was just the same as she had been before, there not being much room for progress since she was already quite skilled in combat. Skin was stretching at longer distances now, and Synch was experimenting with taking on two mutants' powers at once.

Jubilee had regressed in hand-to-hand combat, resorting to the most defensive line of attacks, as if she was afraid of getting hurt, even with the safety in the Danger Grotto on. Her power, however, was deadly. She shot at her enemies with ferocity. HAd they been real, she would have caused severe burns and missing limbs. It was as if she was determined to keep them as far away from her as possible. For most part, she stayed on the side-lines while everyone else did the hard work for her, to the chagrin of everyone around her.

She had tried to push Jubilee into concentrating on her hand-to-hand combative skills, and Husk had offered to duel her as training. Jubilee had refused the offer, and Sean was too gentle to ask Jubilee to do anything. He was coddling her and it made Emma sick to see it. If she couldn't get Jubilee to train then she would let Xavier and Scott deal with her.

---

Later...

Jubilee rolled out of bed finally, when her body felt that she had enough sleep and rest.

She slipped on her jeans, zipped them up, then gasped as she closed the button. That hurt.

She sucked in her stomach, the pain temporarily residing. Then she relaxed, and the pain returned. She ran in front of the mirror, then turned sideways. There - barely noticeable at all, but a tiny rise starting from her belly button and furter down. To any onlooker, it was a flat stomach. But to Jubilee, who had taken very close scrutiny in her body now, it was barely noticeable, but still there, nonetheless.

She was getting bigger. It wasn't her imagination. "Dammit!"

She kicked off her jeans and looked for another pair of pants. "Gonna haveta get on a frickin' diet after this is all over."

She found something looser and slipped it on. "Ahhaa, that's better." She threw on a soft sweater and stretched, yawning, exposing her seemingly flat stomach as she did so.

"Jubilee!" Paige barged into her room. She was so happy about Monet's gift that she had to share it with someone, and she intended to share it with Jubilee - the only other virgin she knew. She and Jubilee had been open and honest about everything since they first met, and in the past, Jubilee had found herself in the same predicament that Paige had been - Jubilee wanted to save herself for Everett.

Jubilee immidiately shielded her stomach with her shirt as Paige intruded, and scowled at her. "Don't you ever knock, hayseed?!"

Paige stared at her, dumbfounded. "You never believed in knocking before."

"Maybe I'm turning a new leaf." She mumbled and scratched her arm nervously. "So what brings you to my boudoir?" Jubilee's eyebrows raised. Paige was positively glowing in happiness. What the hell happened to her, and how could Jubilee get some of it?

"Did you know that Monet ...? That she...?"

Jubilee folded her arms defensively. "Yes. Please don't tell me this is the reason you barged in. I'm, like, in no mood to relive that again."

The psi-blast had left Jubilee frustrated and unsatisfied. Her heart was broken - Everett was lost to her forever. And when Everett touched Monet with those hands, to Jubilee it felt as if he was touching her - a wretchid example of what she couldn't have.

But what was worse was that his touch was quick and undecided, too eager to feel naked flesh than to bring pleasure. Everett's touch wasn't nearly as considerate and gentle as ... as... "...Ugh!" She shouted out loud, shoving the unwanted memories away.

"You knew about them already? How?"

"She lost control of her powers and psi-blasted me while she was doin' the Wild Thing. How'd you find out?" Jubilee answered Paige honestly, thankful for the distraction.

"Monet shared her memories with me. She-"

"-Monet shared that with you?" She shouted, wrinkling her nose. "Dude! Why?"

"She knew about the way I felt for Jono, so she let me share one of her memories. It was awesome." She answered, shocked at Jubilee's reaction. Monet had given her a gift, a cheat sheet, so to speak. She had experienced sex and still had her virginity for Jono - she had the best of both worlds, and all because Monet had felt generous.

"Actuallyitwasntallthatawesome..." She muttered under her breath, then regretted saying it out loud. The unfortunate string of circumstances that had happened over the past several months had given her the ability to tell the difference between passionate sex and beginner's sex, much to her chagrin.

Paige cocked her head to the side, looking at Jubilee in curiosity. She couldn't quite understand how she could be so grateful for Monet's gift and Jubilee so bitter. Weren't they both in the same boat? Was it because Monet had sex with Everett? Was that it? Jealousy? And what was all that talk about it not being awesome? Jubilee was a virgin, too, after all. "How would you know?"

"Nothing. Just forget it." She left her room, leaving Paige behind, befuddled.

---