Reunion (RP for Logan and Jean)

[cyke_out]

*OOC -- After this. Jean (Phoenix?) has returned to Earth on a mysterious errand, and passed out in Scott's arms.Scott took her to the Danger Room. Or he took her to what was left of it -- and that was another thing to explain. If there was ever a time. If there was ever a need. If there was actually a Jean Grey there to explain anything to

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[canadianclaws]

Logan looked through the window, in the direction of Scott's gesture. Red hair, white dress - Sleeping Beauty on a cold metal floor. It looked like Jean.

But, then again, the Phoenix always did.

"Yeah," Logan said. Scott didn't need to say any more. "Yeah, I'll take care of it."

Logan body wanted to reach out, return at least the physical gesture that Scott had just given, if not more, but instead he ducked away from Scott's hand on his shoulder and headed directly for the door. If this thing between them had been shaky before, Jean's return - whether or not she was really Jean - was certain to close it off entirely. There was no use pretending otherwise.

He stepped through the room and walked over to Jean's body, kneeling down and touching one funereally-folded arm.

"Jeannie..." he whispered. His voice was more hoarse than he would have expected. Even after all this time, all of her deaths - even when he knew this was, more likely than not, just a destructive cosmic entity using Jean's face - being this close to her still made his heart skip beats.

[justjeangrey]

Jean knew the voice; she heard it in her dreams. Phoenix heard it in her nightmares.

A smile tugged at her lips. She breathed in the air between them and in one swift motion grasped his hand and pulled herself up and into his arms. "Logan..." She buried her face in his chest, felt his heartbeat against her cheek. It felt real.

"Where am I?" she asked, her voice muffled. She clung to him. The words she'd spoken earlier ringing in her ears...I want to stay. I always want to stay.

"Where's Scott?"

[canadianclaws]

Logan wrapped his arms around her instinctively, briefly pressing his face into her hair. He could have this moment's indulgence before the questions started. Before the unfortunate necessity of yet another murder became apparent.

"You're in the Danger Room. Scott's right through that window," he said, voice soft. If this was the Phoenix, she'd find Scott anyway; there was no point in hiding that information.

He pulled back a bit. "Jeannie, I need you to tell me, right now, if this is you." He stared into her eyes, knowing she could hear his words echoed in his thoughts. "'Cause if it's not, I know you know what I gotta do."

[justjeangrey]

She met his eyes, sadly. Always the same questions. Never an easy answer.

"I'm me, Logan. I am -" She felt Phoenix rising up within her, responding to his closeness. Angrily, she pushed Logan away. "No."

She transformed before his eyes and yet she remained the same. Her hair was fire, her eyes flames, yet it might be a trick of the light. Or the memory.

One tear ran down her cheek. "Logan..." She sounded haunted, but it was Jean's voice alone. "Tell Scott...I..."

She collapsed again, by who's will it was entirely unclear.

[canadianclaws]

Logan put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes and scrunching up the skin with his fingers. Damnit. This was the Phoenix, at least partially. And Jean wasn't in total control. Which meant that they'd have to destroy her.

Logan dropped his hands to his sides and released his claws, resigned to the inevitable, and wondered just how much harder this would be, this time, without Jean begging him to do it.

And yet... Logan paused, claws outstretched. If the Phoenix was really the one in power, Jean wouldn't have collapsed. Something of Jean remained in this body, and maybe, just maybe, they could save her. Maybe he didn't have to do this, yet. They still had time - time to find out what the stupid bird wanted, if nothing else.

Logan sheathed his claws and bent over, testing Jean's throat for a pulse. It was there, strong and steady, though she remained prone and unmoving.

"Come on, Red," he said, gripping her shoulders. "Come back to us. Tell us why you're here. Tell me what you wanted to say."

[cyke_out]

The first thing Scott did, as Logan approached the prostrate woman, was to switch out his glasses in favor of a visor. Even though he knew, as he had told Logan, that his power wasn't any use against Phoenix now (if it ever had been), he felt a small measure of control this way.

Then he watched them, through the window; he could hear their words, too, through Logan's comm -- relief when Jean identified herself, then a sharp stab of dread when the deeper, darker voice arrived to contradict her. And then. . .

He heard the snap of Logan's unsheathing claws, saw the glint of metal, and Scott cursed as he hit the control to open the door. By the time Scott reached them, Logan was leaning over the collapsed body. Scott grabbed Logan by the collar, and slammed his fist into the side of the other man's face. "What the fuck are you doing?"

[canadianclaws]

Logan stood up and rounded on Scott, grabbing him by the front of the shirt but stopping short of punching him back.

"In case you didn't notice, Cyke, we've got a goddamn Phoenix in here. And I didn't even stab her, anyway. But don't pretend you didn't send me in here to do just what I almost did."

[cyke_out]

Scott jerked free and slammed the heel of his hand into Logan's breastbone.

"I said to come in here and talk. If I'd meant stab, I would have said stab. I'm not saying it's the wrong choice, I'm saying --" and he shook Logan with each of the next words "--it's -- not -- your --call."

Letting go, he kept staring Logan in the face. "Since when am I afraid to give an order?"

[canadianclaws]

"Maybe I didn't want you to have to give the order!"

The words slipped out before Logan could think about what he was saying, but once they were out he knew he'd spoken the truth. Logan was the killer, of the two of them. He was the one who did what had to be done. He was the one who was already tainted beyond repair. And if someone had to make the call to kill the woman he and Scott both loved, for the umpteenth time, Logan wanted it to be him.

He'd just been too chickenshit to actually go through with it.

[cyke_out]

"Not your call," Scott repeated quietly. Then he bent his knees and crouched to the floor beside Jean, tracing his fingers lightly over her arm.

"I'm still in charge here," he said, without looking at Logan. "If you have a problem with that, you can point those claws at me. Until then, this is my call." He felt a chilling calm beginning to wash over him, ice- water flowing into his veins. It made him good at what he did, this ability to detach from the present crisis. It made him hate himself, when the crisis was over.

He couldn't think about that now.

Lifting his gaze to Logan, he said, "This is my command and Jean is my -- responsibility. She came to me. She asked for me, am I right?"

[canadianclaws]

Logan crouched down as well, on the other side of Jean, matching Scott's gaze over her prostrate body as he rubbed small circles over the pressure points in her palm.

"Yeah, she asked for you. But she also asked for Emma, and I don't see you bringing her in here. Everything doesn't have to be on your goddamn shoulders."

[cyke_out]

"Last time I saw the two of them together, Logan, Jean tried to rip Emma's mind out of her skull. And that was with Jean driving, not Phoenix. I still -- care about Jean, but I'm not putting the woman I love in harm's way before I have to."

"So, it's you and me for now. We need a containment plan that doesn't involve stabbing. Which, of course, is there as a last resort." He looked up at Logan, for confirmation that they were on the same page.

[canadianclaws]

Logan continued scowling, but he was done being contentious, for now. The Phoenix was more important than... whatever that argument had just been.

"Yeah. Fine. So what's the plan?" God forbid I step over the boundaries of "my call" again.