Yesterdays &
Tomorrows
15. Making the
Call
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Date Posted:
05.30.2006 |
Summary: A closing chapter to
the leaving sub section.
*Tring Tring…Tring Tring*
--
“How long has it been?” A pairs of deep blue eyes
rested on the solitary figure seated on the stairs
below, a couple of hundred feet from the window that
the person was observing from.
“Almost three hours,” a cultured but currently tired
voice answered from inside the room, its owner
kneading the side of his head in an effort to
relieve some of the tension clouding his mind.
Sometimes being a telepath wasn’t all that bright a
proposition, and for Charles Xavier this was one of
those times.
“Three hours?” Henry McCoy’s blue form turned away
from the window to face his former mentor.
“Charles….”
“Even when she went inside last time, it was for
only a few minutes,” Xavier continued his
revelation. “…and to get James to back to his room.
No one has been able to get her to come back
inside.”
“Charles…Professor,” with one last glance outside,
Hank left his position and walked up to the
Professor table and settled down on one of the empty
chairs. “You should have told him.”
“I know that,” sighed Charles.
“He wouldn’t have left if he knew the truth.”
Another sigh. “I know that too.”
“So why didn’t…” Henry stopped midway in his
question. He knew what the answer to his question
would have been, and the way Charles lifted his head
to face him, the helplessness that shimmered in his
aging eyes, told him that the Professor had asked
himself the same question…over and over again, to
come up with same answer….Every. Single. Time.
“I take that Jubilation has also taken an indefinite
leave.” It was a lame effort on Henry’s part to try
to change the direction of the conversation. But
with the recent events in the mansion and the even
more recent report that he had just given to the
Professor, any conversation was hard in coming.
“Yes.” A few seconds of silence and then, “She will
not be returning to the mansion anytime soon…if at
all. Logan, before he left, made arrangements with
Mr. Murdock for her living, studies and other
expenses.”
“Matthew Murdock,” rolling the name over his tongue,
Henry wondered aloud, “He is a competent…an
excellent lawyer, and honorable to a fault. Almost
gives lawyers a bad name. A good choice.”
“Yes.”
“It makes one wonder…” this question was one that
had been troubling not Henry but the other mansion
residents who had come to know about Logan’s choice
for his legal affairs. “..why didn’t Logan avail of
Mr. Murdock’s services during…” ‘…the divorce
proceedings,’ was left unsaid.
“I…don’t know.” Charles answered. Lately, these two
words had found their use more and more frequently,
much to his chagrin as he found himself embroiled in
a web of lies that he himself had helped to weave.
“…don’t know.”
---
*Click*
“You’ve reached,” the electronic voice
started, “Logan,” a familiar deep voice interjected
with the name, leaving the rest of the default
message. “Please wait for the beep before leaving
your name, message and phone number.”
“Thank you”
---
Earlier in the week,
For Ororo, things had steadily and lately rather
rapid gone from bearably okay to bad to what they
were now, the lowest she had ever felt in her life.
Before this she had thought that nothing could
surpass the pain and loss that came from Logan
leaving her and the subsequent end of their
marriage. But now, she understood that the last,
Logan hadn’t left…not truly, not like this time.
Now, not only was he gone from her life, he had also
made arrangements so that their paths would never
have to cross again.
He had severed all ties that held them…their hearts
together.
And she was to blame for it.
The only thing that brought some light, in all the
darkness of her loss, both of Logan and from what
would happen once Kendall and James came to know
about the decision that their father had made, the
only thing that gave her some respite was the hope
that it was all going to work out in the end.
‘It is for the best.’ Those five words had become
her mantra now, one that she found herself chanting
more and more frequently, lately on almost nonstop
repetitions.
Even after three days, she still hadn’t been able to
come up with a way of breaking the news to her
children that their father won’t be coming to pick
them up for either the upcoming weekends or for who
knows how many future ones. James, she knew would
accept it with a simple nod or at the most a few
shed tears. It was Kendall who she was worried
about, not only for her reaction but also for the
possible fall out it might have, especially now. For
even though the Professor had hypothesized that
unlike her, Kendall’s powers were tied into her
instincts rather than her emotions, Ororo could not
help but worry about it. For more than decade, she
had lived and seen the Wolverine inside Logan, and
deny as much as she would, even Ororo would have to
accept that the same Wolverine, the same beast, or
at least a part of it, existed within Kendall.
Accepted the any emotional fluctuations from Kendal
wouldn’t affect the weather in the same way it did
for Ororo, but as with Wolverine, Kendall too would
have a lower threshold for lashing out.
Ororo remembered how agitated Logan had been during
her labor with Kendall, how he almost lost it, going
into a berserker rage when complications from sudden
ruptures caused her to bleed profusely. It was only
Jean’s and the Professor’s continuous presence both
within her and his minds that averted what would
surely have been a disaster.
--
Lost in her thoughts, on her way back to her suite
after her classes, she almost missed the figure
slinking away, disappearing into the
shadows….almost.
One look and Ororo knew it was. Jubilee.
Shutting off, or at least trying to, the mother in
her who wanted to call out and go her elder
daughter, the suddenly tired weather goddess trudged
to her door. Finding it open, knowing that Jubilee
had been in her room, she stepped inside and made
her way to her bed…stopping midway as her caught
sight of something out of place on her dresser.
It did not take her long to realize what was
different, what had changed, what was there now that
hadn’t been there just a few hours ago.
A small, silver framed photo of her, Logan, Kendall,
baby James…and holding him, beaming for the camera,
Jubilee.
The one last thing that Jubilee had kept as a memory
of her family, one that she had lost much too soon.
What was even more glaring was the worn out nature
of the photo. It had been, not once but repeatedly,
taken out from its silver casing and caressed
reverently.
That was Jubilee’s last day as a resident of the
Xavier mansion.
----
*BEEP*
“Hello. Daddy?! Daddie, its me. Kendall.”
---
Now,
“How are you feeling?” Stepping through the west
entrance, Scott Summers settled down on the couch in
front of the television of the main recreation room
of the mansion.
At getting no answer, he tried again, knowing that
it was not the movie that had her complete
attention…her thoughts. “Ororo.” He rested a gentle
hand on her arm.
“Huh.” It was as if a spell had been broken, a
moment of confusion flashing in her previously
vacant eyes. Settling onto Scott, she gave a slight
nod of recognition. “Yes Scott?”
“How’s the movie?”
“Movie?” Almost as if as an afterthought, Ororo
comprehended where she was. “Oh. It-its…good.”
“I am sure it is,” reaching for the remote, Scott
pressed the power button to switch the video off.
“Ororo…” he hesitated, not wanting to ask the same
‘want to talk about it’ question. “We good?” He
settled on a simple two word query.
The couple of seconds of silence seemed to stretch
for infinity, and then. “Yes Scott. We good,” she
smiled, her barely disguised sadness clear to even
his visor covered eyes.
“Ororo.” The way he spoke her name, told Ororo that
her lie didn’t hold water, not in front of him. He
knew her too long and too well to get duped by her
cool controlled exterior.
“Okay, not so good,” she relented, her lips curving
up in a repeat of her previous smile. “getting
there.”
“Want to t…” force of habit, the taboo
question almost slipped out. “Want to go out for a
walk?”
“Maybe later.” Ororo placed her hand over his,
squeezing it gently. “Right now, I….” she stopped at
the rapid thumping of young feet in the corridor
outside, her entire being seemingly shrinking into
itself…as if in pain.
Neither of the adults needed to speak about the
cause of this, or what was happening outside. It
wasn’t anything that hadn’t already happened today.
Three hours to the clock, Kendall Logan was making
her trip inside, to do something that she had done
thrice already…make a phone call…to the phone number
that her father had given her.
----
“Daddy’s its five a clock. We are waitin’ for
you. James fell asleep but even he said when you
come to wake him up. When are you coming to pick us
up daddy?”
“Come soon. Muaaah. ‘m Kendall.”
----
What neither she nor her mother knew that her every
single call although to the right number, wasn’t
reaching its destination….
….with each left message being stored on the phone
currently in a safe box in an office not even a
hundred feet above them.
---
At the same time, there was another call being place
from somewhere within the mansion, only this was
being made to a different destination….New Orleans.
“Come on Remy. Pick up sugah. Pick up. Ah really
need ya t’ come back. Come back now.”
Note: Next. There is a lot of jumping about, in places,
with characters and even into time, finally landing in….well, you’ll have to
read for that.
Don’t worry, its not a time travel fic….just the normal flow
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