Blueshift

Blueshift Chapter Fifty Six (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *yawn* Yes, definitely nap time… InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: *oodles of gold stars * Morgan: *tackleglomp* Readers/Reviewers: Next chapter will get us back on the regular updating schedule. I think. I hope. It should, at any rate… *ponders * ;)


“You know,” Jean said softly in the dark, “I think I’m kind of okay with it now.”
Scott groaned and turned onto his side. “I’m not. Shhhh…”
“Sorry,” she whispered, running her fingertips down his forearm. “I can’t sleep.”
“I figured that out,” he sighed. “Jean, it’s gotta be almost morning… can this possibly wait a few more hours?”
“It’s just twelve thirty,” she murmured, staring at the ceiling. “The voices are gone, I think.”
“Good,” he yawned, still mostly asleep. “Tell them to call first next time.”
Jean sighed and murmured assent. Scott turned back onto his other side and was snoring again within moments. When she was sure he was truly out, she slid from the bed and padded to their closet. In a few moments, she was dressed, Scott’s coat under her arm as she moved quietly down the stairs. She was not sure what she wanted to go to the main house for but she had a strong feeling, not any sort of psychic nudge, that she should go there and go there now. She let herself out of the house quietly, not bothering to lock the door, then jogged across the crunchy grass, frost and dead leaves marking her passage. She went to the side door, the one leading into the hallway where the laundry room was housed, and pressed in the security code on the outside keypad. She waited, eyes open wide, as the newly installed retinal scanner did it’s work. Finally, a soft click told her the door had been unlocked and her entry was being logged into the security system. She stepped inside and waited a moment as her eyes adjusted to the dark of the hall, the only illumination coming from a small lamp at the far end of the passage way. On silent feet, she hurried down the carpet runner and found herself in the foyer in moments. She paused and scanned the immediate area, smiling in vague relief when she verified that she was alone. She hurried to the kitchen and started to prepare herself a glass of chocolate milk, humming under her breath.
“Can’t sleep either?”
Jean barely kept herself from yelping as she spun to face Jamie. “What’s the matter?” she managed, only slightly shaky.
“Rahne is convinced these Shi’ar people want her brain or something,” he sighed, dropping into one of the chairs. “She kept me up talking for hours and now…” He yawned widely, “I just can’t sleep.”
Jean retrieved another cup from the cabinet, not looking as she did so, and set about preparing two glasses of chocolate milk. “So…” She paused and quirked a brow. “How do you feel, being the one who saw the whole thing start?”
“Huh?”
“You saw the ship… you thought it was a star but you saw it. You’re the first person to see the Shi’ar arrive on Earth. Well,” she added thoughtfully, “that we know of.”
“What do you think they want? I’m so confused,” he sighed, accepting the glass from her telekinetic reach.
“Well,” she said thoughtfully, sitting down across from him, “Lilandra claims that her brother is going to do something drastic if we don’t help her stop him. I’m not clear on the crystal thing but…” she turned the glass back and forth in her hands, staring into the depths of her sweet drink. “I don’t know. I just think that whatever is going on is going to come to a head soon.”
Jamie nodded and drained half his glass in one long gulp. Catching his breath as he put his glass down, he said “Do you really think he could do something like destroy the world?”
“No,” Jean laughed, hoping she sounded encouraging. “That would be almost impossible…”
“So would an alien invasion,” he pointed out, “but guess who’s sleeping in the study.”
“Touche…” Jean sipped her drink delicately, then paused. “Someone’s outside.”
“Logan?” he hazarded, hoping.
Jean stood and moved quietly towards the glass door leading to the lanai. “Stay here.”
Jamie snorted. “Right.” He joined Jean at the door, peering out into the darkness. “Is it Banshee?”
“Shhhh!” Jean elbowed him. “I need quiet…”
“It’s just me,” Wanda snapped, dropping over the stone wall. She dusted her hands off on her jeans and frowned at them. “You suck at sneaky.”
“Pardon us for not excelling at breaking and entering techniques,” Jean replied tartly, standing aside for Wanda to enter. “You can’t come at a normal hour?”
“You’re eighteen and wearing footie pajamas. Don’t talk to me about normal,” Wanda replied in short order, walking over to the table and draining Jean’s almost full glass of milk in one long gulp. “God, I needed that. Hard work breaking into this fortress.”
“You have security clearance,” Jean snapped, grabbing the glass from Wanda and taking it to the sink.
“Hey, Jamie,” Wanda said, ignoring Jean. “Aliens, huh?”
“Lesbian partner with a baby, huh?” he shrugged.
Wanda raised a brow, then snorted. It was the closest to a laugh she would allow in front of them. “Couldn’t sleep and figured one of you guys would be useful about now.”
“One of us?” Jamie asked, his expression incredulous. “ How’d you even know we’d be up?”
“She meant,” Jean sighed, “one of any of us at the Institute.” She glared at Wanda and added, “She’s just lucky we were up and she didn’t set off the alarms.”
“Alarms around the perimeter are dodgy,” Wanda said, sitting in the chair at the head of the table and propping her feet up. “You can tell… they cycle and the hum is a dead give away.”
“What?” Jean was suddenly very alert. “They’re not supposed to do that.”
“Sheer genius here,” Wanda smiled thinly. “Someone’s monkeyed with ‘em. I’m guessing Sabretooth.”
“Why?” Jamie asked. “Look like his work?” Despite Jean’s glare and obvious desire for Wanda to be gone, Jamie found himself drawn into conversation with the other mutant. He had always been fascinated by Wanda, both because of her parentage and her attitude. Jean’s displeasure did nothing to dampen this.
“No, but it smells like him. Sabretooth reeks like the lion cage at the zoo. Kinda musky, you know?” She rocked her chair onto it’s back legs idly, staring up at the ceiling. “And there’s a blue sedan parked a quarter mile up the road. Figured it wasn’t yours and the aliens didn’t arrive by Buick…”
Jean thought for a moment, her mental feelers reaching out into the mansion. “I’m getting Logan.”
“Yeah, do that,” Wanda muttered as Jean bolted from the kitchen. “She ever sleep? Every time I see her, she’s Fearless Leader, Part Two.”
“We’re kinda stressed,” Jamie sighed. He raked a glance over the other mutant and frowned. “ You look tired. What’ve you been up to? Where’s Tabby and Lucas?”
“At…” she almost said the name of the hotel where Mystique had ensconced them. “At home,” she said finally. She had been by home earlier and found it ransacked. She had not told Tabby yet and was trying to think of a way not to. “I came out here because I need to…to talk to someone. About something.”
“With nouns and verbs and I bet a past participle,” Jamie muttered, sipping the rest of his milk. “Well… everyone’s asleep.”
“I bet the Professor would want to wake up for this,” Wanda sighed. “In fact, I’ll bet money on it.”