Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER FIFTY TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm)...*now * you can breathe! Tim stopped being twitchy and Steed stopped looking for Peel, so I think it's all good now! InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are special. They have little altars in their honor now. :) Readers/Reviewers: The Killer Kitties (tm) and their Minions (tm) are in awe of you now. Mainly because I told them they had to be and I would look the other way about the duct taped ducks of a few weeks ago... :)

Sam stared at the rough-textured ceiling of his room as the sounds of the mansion settling down above him slowly faded to quiet. When no more footsteps pattered back and forth on the floor, when the last door slammed and when the last voice fell silent, he eased from his room and trod down the hall to Paige's, knocking quietly, pausing for a moment before saying, "I know you're up in there..."
"No, I'm not."
"Paige. Open the door please."
"Sam, I want to get some sleep. I've just had the most fucked up week of my life and I really need a nap."
Sam sighed. "I was there too, you know... Look, we need to talk." He waited for almost a full minute, not hearing any sounds from within her room. Finally, in his best big-brother voice, he said, "Paige Guthrie, open this door right now or so help me..."
She had been standing directly on the other side of the door from him so opened it rather quickly. "Come in but be quiet... That scary chick with the weird hair is in the room next door and she doesn't seem like the type to like being kept up."
Sam shut the door behind him and joined Paige in sitting on the bed. "Sis, I don't know if I want you stayin' here."
"What?" Her first thoughts were of Jono, then of her mutation and how hard it was to live amongst non-mutants. "I want to stay!" she said more loudly than she intended.
"Paige, this week..."
"This week just makes me want to stay here more! I mean," she said, getting up to pace the room, "I thought this place was gonna be like a boarding school or something, but it's not! Okay, maybe a little, but Sam, you know as well as I do that we can't stay hidden forever. One deopleople are gonna find out there's mutants in the world and not all of 'em are gonna like us."
Sam stood and crossed his arms over his chest, fixing his sister with a stern parental gaze. "Paige, you listen to me...this week ain't gonna be a regular thing here. The Professor, he's gonna make you learn and go to school. Just because you've got some superhero jones..."
"Like you don't?" she smirked, coming to stand in front of him and smile up at him winningly. "I've got an idea...why don't you stay here with me for a while? See for yourself what I _know _...this place is gonna be the best thing for me."
Sam frowned. He did not want to admit the desire that was going against his sibling-parental instincts, that he needed to protect his little sister from insanity such as they had recently experienced. Finally, he nodded. "Okay. We'll stay the summer and until school gets underway in the fall. If it ain't workin' out, you come back to Kentucky with me, no bitching, right?"
"Right," she said, nodding firmly.
"And you stay away from that weird kid!"
"Which one?"
"Jono..."
"No way in Hell, big brother...no way in Hell."
"Paige..."
"Nope," she said happily, already pushing him towards the door. "Jono and I are none of your business. Go to bed."
"You can't order me around!"
"Yes I can! See? I'm the little sister so I can pout and tear up and beg and you'll have to give in. Now, rather than embarrass us both with a scene, why don't you go on to bed and let me get some beauty sleep, and we can talk again later."
"Beauty sleep, huh?" She had succeeded in pushing him out of the door and now he paused in the hallway just outside the room. "If I gotta wait till you're done with that, we'll never talk!"
"Good _night _, Sam." Paige stuck her tongue out at him before she closed her door.
Sam sighed and smiled a little. He did not mind Jono so much...he just did not want Paige around him. Deciding that five am was too late to try and get rest, he trundled upstairs to the kitchen and was pleased to find himself relatively alone. Kurt and Kitty were still asleep on the couch, Kurt muttering in his sleep and Kitty snuffling softly as she tried to get more comfortable on the narrow space, but Sam tuned them out as he set about finding breakfast. _Do these people have anything other than weird colored cereal and bagels? Ooooh... pizza. _
"I think that thing needs to be carbon dated," Jean murmured sleepily as she padded into the kitchen from the direction of the foyer.
"How old is it?" Sam asked, a piece poised midway to his mouth.
"Um..." Jean had to think for a moment. "Less than a year, more than three days."
He shrugged and bit into it. "Not too bad," he said around the mouthful. "I may regret it later, but not too bad right now."
"The breakfast of champions," she said, opening a bottle of orange juice from across the room then bringing it to herself by the virtue of thought alone. "Kitty, Jubilee and I once ate pints of ice cream for breakfast so I guess I shouldn't criticize."
"Paige eats potato chips usually. Drives mom nuts." Sam took another bite and gestured vaguely with the slice. "Sit down, put your feet up."
Jean laughed a little at that. "Nah, I'm going to try and get some sleep, actually. I just needed a drink." She took a sip of the orange juice and made a face. "Ew. Mint toothpaste and OJ do not mix..."
"If I ask you a question, will you give me an honest answer?" Sam asked suddenly, leaning forward to stare at Jean, fixing her in place with his intent gaze. She nodded and sat then, taking the chair directly across from him. "Paige wants to stay and I'm gonna let her, even though it's against my better judgment, and to tell the truth, I want to stay, too. I want...no, I need to know...will she be safe here? Is what we've been through this week a normal occurrence here?"
Jean had to think out her answer carefully, given that their past year at the institute had been more chaotic than most. She said slowly but confidently, "Well...I can't promise it will be boring, that's for sure...Someone is always up to something." She sent up a silent prayer that no one would get caught being up to anything any time soon before she continued, "I can't tell you something I don't know myself. Things here have been very unsettled this past year and now, with this place turning into a school on it's own, it will probably have a bit more chaos than we would really want. But I can promise you that we'll keep her as safe as we can, that if anything does happen to her, we'll do our damnedest to help her and we'll be like family to her."
Sam took a long, slow breath before nodding curtly. "That's all I can ask for right now."
Jean nodded slightly in return. "I gotta get some sleep. Look, if it will help any, you can ask me anything you want later this morning and I'll tell you honestly. I know that you've heard some tales by now about this place..."
Sam nodded again. "Yeah...mostly about sex."
Jean groaned in semi-embarrassment. "This is going to be a long talk," she sighed.

Scott yawned as Jean slid back into bed with him. "What took so long?"
"Ran into Sam in the kitchen..." Jean sighed and snuggled closer against Scott's bare chest. "He's been hearing things."
"Like what?"
"Like I don't feel like talking right now so can we do this later? Like in five hours?"
Scott laughed softly. "Sure, why not?" He was almost asleep again when Jean shifted in his arms to face him. "Hmm?"
"Roulette left tonight. The Professor knows but he doesn't know where she's going."
Scott sighed. "Three guesses where she went...You'd think the loonies were made of metal the way he attracts them."
Jean nodded, her hair tickling his chin and neck. "I'd bet on iRobeRoberto is staying, though."
"What about Emma?"
"The Professor didn't say. I didn't want to ask." She sighed again and he could feel her becoming more awake. "Do you think things will settle down now?"
"I'm the wrong guy to ask," he murmured, stroking her back in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "I think things will get stirred up whenever it comes out we're married now."
"I'm surprised the Professor doesn't already know," she allowed. "Scott, I think Rogue might now...Empath did after all..."
"How did he...oh. Telepathy. If Empath knew, Emma might know..."
Jean made a noise of frustration and wriggled in Scott's arms, trying to sit up but failing because he held her too tightly. "I don't want us to be the next crisis for the Institute!"
"Why would we be a crisis?" he asked, pulling her to him again and kissing the side of her neck. "We're married. It's not the end of the world. They'll get over it next time Kurt and Kitty get caught going at it like rabbits or Jubilee does something weird with her hair..."
"It's not in the same class as those things, Scott," she sighed as he continued to kiss her neck, moving towards her shoulder. She was starting to feel warm in some very interesting places and was rather liking it, despite bein tir tired. "Scott, we need to sleep..."
"I've been asleep...that's what I was doing when you came crawling into my bed," he said, nipping her shoulder sharply.
"Were not. You were waiting to see if I'd come back!" She bit her lip as she felt him push the hem of her nightshirt above her hip. "Didn't you get enough of that earlier?" she said, not really complaining.
"Not really," he responded, sliding his hand down her thigh then across to rest against her low abdomen. "Jean, you're worrying too much. Focus on one thing at a time. Right now, just worry about sleep. Close your eyes and relax," he murmured, his fingers brushing the damp curls at the juncture of her thighs. Jean jerked slightly in response but did not say anything as he idly stroked his fingers across her sex, all the while talking to her. "I'm wondering about Rogue, myself. I mean, Beast has her pretty doped up but no one knows how she'll react to having taken all of Empath into her1..."
"What about the Brotherhood reforming?" she muttered, almost too distracted to care.
"Well," he said, pushing one finger into her willing entrance, feeling her shudder against him as he did it and smiling against the back of her neck in response, "I think that's going to be more of an annoyance than a threat."
Jean gasped as he brushed against the button of nerves between her thighs that made her want to push against him and be filled by him. "Scott," she finally said raggedly, "what about Jono? He can't keep living in the basement sublevels like the Phantom of Bayville..."2
"One more night won't kill him," he rejoined, increasing his attentions as she began moving her hips gently against his hand. "Just stop worrying for right now, Jean...tomorrow we'll all see the Professor and maybe things will be clearer." He pressed against the nubbin that was making her squirm and she gasped loudly, her center becoming increasingly wet around his digits. "Tomorrow, it'll all be different." He captured her earlobe between his teeth then and bit down gently, drawing on her as he did so. Jean arched suddenly and cried out softly in release, her body alternating between tensing and relaxing as spasms racked her nerves and muscles.
"Scott," she finally said when it was all over, "I ever tell you that you can be a great motivator? I think I may actually sleep now."
He smiled as she curled around him, deciding that he might be better of telling her that Remy knew their secret once she had some sleep.
1 That really isn't supposed to sound so perverted, lol.
2 Phantom of the Opera reference; he lived in the catacombs beneath the opera house because he was hideously disfigured.