Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father Chapter Five (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Busiest Woman Alive, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... Beware the kilts... InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are extra loverly for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: Ask and ye shall receive... in chapter six. ;) Morgan: *poke * Readers/Reviewers: *blush * Thanks! And the Armadillos are proud. They are now certified Leprosy Free! (and if you know about armadillos, you know how hard that is to manage!)



"You done for the day?" Scott asked as Jean slid into the passenger seat. "Damn, you look...bad."
She did not even dignify that with a glare as she slammed the car door and buckled her seat belt roughly. "Well? We going or what?" she snapped finally.
"Uh...sure..." He frowned and pulled away from the curb, swinging into the light traffic of Bayville's outlying area. After several minutes of tense silence, he ventured, "Want to stop for something to eat? A burger or something?"
"C minus!" she exploded. "A C minus!" Shifting in her seat, she turned a pink-with-anger face to Scott and demanded, "How could she give me a C minus when I put so much work into it?"
"I'm going to guess this is about your paper for histology?" he asked warily, braking to a stop at a red light. "Or the one for ethics?"
"Ethics," she snarled, rifling through her backpack between her feet. "That...that..."
"Jean," he said warningly, watching the dials on the dashboard jump with her anger. "You're doing that thing again."
"Huh? Oh. Sorry." She took a deep breath and reigned in her temper, the dials falling into their proper place. "She said it was...trite and overblown!"
Scott winced. Jean had spent hours a day for almost a month working on her Medical Ethics paper, focusing on genetic engineering technology. He had thought it was complicated and only honestly understood about a third of it, but he had encouraged her and Beast and the Professor both had exclaimed over her insight and depth, so he did not even think twice about the paper after that. Now, with Jean fairly hyperventilating with irritation and shame about the twenty page opus. "Jean, it's just community college and..."
"I should have known you wouldn't understand," she grumbled, sliding down in her seat a little, a childish gesture he was not even sure she knew she was doing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked gingerly. He did not want to take her words personally, but it was difficult not to.
"Just...nothing. Is that Lance and Todd?" she asked suddenly.
"Jean, don't change the subject. You're upset and I want to help you, but I can't do that if you don't talk to me!" He felt the beginnings of a headache starting behind his right eye. It had been a near constant companion, the pain, since their misadventures involving the Pantheon Project a month or so before, but some days were better than others. Most days, he could convince himself that the headaches were simple stress. Other days, though, it was hard. Hard to the point of driving him to go to Beast and all but beg for painkillers. Now was shaping up to be one of the "others", he decided with an inward sigh.
"No," Jean said with a sigh. "Lance and Todd, right there. Pull over!" She swatted at his arm and pointed out the driver's side window. Lance and Todd looked to be arguing on the sidewalk between the video store and a maternity clothing store, Todd gesticulating wildly as Lance glowered down at him.
"I told you it was bullshit!" Lance snapped, his brows drawn together. "She just fucking left us here!"
"Hey, you two need a ride or something?" Scott called through the open window as they pulled up.
"Yeah," Lance said curtly. "Amara ditched us here cause we took too long in the comic book store," he snorted. "I'm gonna bitch at her when we get back."
Todd rolled his eyes. "Ten minutes ago, he was freaking out because Pietro and what's her face with the tits said they saw Amara getting ticketed over here. Now, he's gonna tear her a new one." In his best Amara-esque falsetto, he added "Men!"
Jean smiled faintly. "Maybe she's just circling or something..." Even as she spoke, she knew this was not true. There was no sign of Amara, physically or otherwise, anywhere nearby.
Todd shrugged and went around the side of the station wagon to get in the back seat as Lance continued to glower. "I can't believe she'd just fucking bail like that!"
Scott raised his brows. "How long were you guys in there anyway? An hour?" He knew how determined Lance had been to find a certain issue of his favorite comic but for the life of him, he could not remember the name of it or even why.
Lance finally looked sheepish. "Three," he muttered. "But it was for a good reason!"
"I'm sure," Jean responded dryly, scanning the area once more for any sign of Amara. "What the..." Her expression went from mildly amused but mostly annoyed to one of sheer surprise with a tinge of worry. She unfastened her seatbelt and was out of the car before Scott could ask her what was wrong, her instinct drawing her to the narrow alleyway between the two shops. It was almost like a beacon, in her mind's eye, the feeling of this other living being in the dark, slightly damp passage. Jean felt their fear as her own, their queasy uncertainty and a strong thread of anger and pride. She stopped just short of the Dumpster full of boxes where the "signal" seemed to come from. "Hello?" Gently, she used her powers to move some boxes aside. "I'm not going to hurt you..." She made a "stay back" motion to Scott, whom she could hear moving towards her with Lance and Todd in tow. "I just wanted to see if you needed help," she continued in a soothing voice.
"I don't need help," the woman's voice snarled. "I just need you to get out of my face!" A shadow resolved itself into form, specifically a tall, gray eyed woman with hair so dark it was indistinguishable from the shadows.
"Geez, sorry," Jean replied, holding out her hands in a warding gesture. "I was just thinking I could help..." She paused, fixed by the other woman's expression. "Are you sure you're okay?"
The woman smiled suddenly, a shocking expression of near perfect beauty on her previously scowling face. "I apologize. I have had...difficulties. I am looking for the Xavier Institute and have gotten lost. Maybe... you know it?"
"Know it? Hell, that's where we're goin', yo." Todd smiled lopsidedly. "Hop on in the car..."
Jean frowned but it was too late to retract the invitation. "I'm Jean Gray. What's your name?"
"Poena."1

1 Heh. A big cookie if you can tell me where I've used that name in the fics before. ;)