We Can Explain...

We Can Explain... Chapter Eight (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...Rested? InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena get heaps of muse mushrooms for archiving/hosting. ProPhile-feeling better? Readers/Reviewers: I really, really, really appreciate you reading and reviewing and being glompy goodness! So do the Killer Kitties (tm)


"What time is it?" Scott groaned, dropping to sit on the hard packed earth. "I feel like we've been walking forever."
Jean sighed and pushed the sweaty strands off her forehead. "It's only...shit."
"Uh..." He glanced up at her through red lenses. "Problem?" The grass itched the backs of his thighs and he scratched absently, frowning as he encountered a welt. "Damned mosquitoes..."
"Phone's dead." She punched the "on" button several more times before jamming the phone back into her pocket. "Shit."
"Well, this sucks." Scott laid back on the grass and caught his breath. For what seemed like the past hour, they had been going at a near jog, the field spillingy toy to city property on the outskirts of Bayville. A railroad track marked the end of their current path, Scott deciding then and there they had gone far enough. "It's been more than two miles."
"I know," she groaned, dropping to sit next to him, resting her head on her sweaty knees and groaning again. "Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen!"
"We were," he hazarded, "supposed to find them, reconvene at the car and go home conquering heroes?"
"Something like that," she admitted, laying back perpendicular to Scott. "We should head back now."
"We should, but we won't, will we?"
"How'd you guess?"
"I don't have to be psychic to know what you're thinking." He rolled up onto his elbow and fixed her with a hard stare. "Jean, listen...we're not going to find them out here. Hell, they're probably back at the car already. Or even the house."
Jean shook her head absently, scanning as far and wide as she could. A few stray thoughts from a vagrant down the tracks, some random images from Scott, and that was it. "Damn it."
"It's not your fault, you know," he said quietly, laying his hand atop hers as he sat up. "It was a good idea..."
"If you'd done it, it would've worked." She pulled away from him and stood, fishing the phone out again. "Maybe we're just out of range," she said hopefully. She walked a few paces in one direction and punched the "on" button again, hissed an invective and repeated the process in each of the four cardinal directions. "Damn it damn it damn it!" she finally growled, throwing the phone as far as she could. Jean pinched the bridge of hose ose and held out her other hand, the phone coming back in a high arc to land neatly in her palm. "Sorry." She shook herself mentally and physically before turning a weak smile to Scott. "I guess I'm letting stress get to me. I can't be perfect here and at school." She sensed, even without the use of her telepathy, one of Scott's patented Fearless Leader speeches coming on so she decided to intervene for her own sake if nothing else. "Come on, let's get going. I think it must be about four o'clock."
"How do you figure?" he asked on a sigh, rising to join her as she headed back towards the slope. "Position of the sun?"
"Random guess...Ow!" She stopped mid-stride and slapped at the back of her neck. "I thought it was too early for mosquitoes!"
"Nah, I got bitten earlier..." He brushed the red hair off her neck to look at the bite and felt a cold finger of fear spread through his stomach. "How long have you had this?"
"Just now," she sighed. "Damn, that hurts." She reached to scratch at it only to have Scott push her hand away. "Lemme itch it."
"Jean, look at something for me, okay?" he said a bit shakily. He pushed up the leg of his shorts to a spot just above the midpoint of his thigh. "What do you see?"
Jean sighed and bent to peer closer, her fingers creeping to itch the bite on her neck. "A red spot...kind of swollen and...oh my God..." She leaned even closer and gently palpated the spot. "Scott, there's something in there." She pressed against it with her nail and winced as he hissed, exerting her mental powers to try and dull the pain. "I can't get it out."
"Jean," he said urgently, "you have something on the back of your neck."
"No, I don't," she insisted, panicking a little more as she rocked back, actively clawing at the back of her neck. "Get it out!"
"Stop, stop," he cried, grabbing her hands. "We need to get to the car. Try to contact everyone, okay? Come on..."
Jean nodded and let herself be led, unable to take her eyes of the red welt on Scott's leg, unable to feel anything else but the welt on her neck. She had no idea how long it took to reach the car, only that she was out of breath and the sun was low in the sky when they did. The parking lot for the fair was almost empty, the lull between the afternoon crowd and the evening one giving them a wide expanse of trampled down grass in which to pace. "Where are they all?" she finally demanded.
"I don't know...you're not getting a scan?"
"Nothing," she sighed, near tears. Frustration and worry built up in her, pushing her reserve to near the breaking point. "Scott, I have no idea what to do next..."
"Okay. Let me think." He closed his eyes and leaned against the car for a moment before nodding to himself and sighing. "Okay. We're going home."
"But..."
"But nothing. We go back, see Beast about this thing in us, and get some help to come back here and find the others."
"I don't like the idea of leaving our friends behind."
"We're six miles from home if we take the short cut. We'll hurry."
Jean nodded, though slowly. "Okay. Hurry."

"Might I ask," Storm put in coolly, "where were the rest of you?"
"Um," Rogue shifted uncomfortably. "I guess that would be my turn..."