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Old Friends; CLOSED
Topic Started: Sep 16 2008, 02:01 AM (196 Views)
Warren Worthington
Unregistered

Time of day: 8pm
Place in the time-line Three days after Old Wounds
JP WARREN AND SCOTT

It had been three days since Jean's talk with Jason Helio, three days since Scott had so poorly attempted to cheer up his wife and instead botched it entirely. Since then, Jean's mood had not improved, though she had tried to keep it from the school and Rosie... she hadn't been able to keep it from him, though. Her sadness and fear had bled through their telepathic rapport and he felt something he had not felt since he was fifteen and he was blinded in the hospital waiting for someone to figure out how to remove his eyes to stop whatever was happening to them-- Scott felt helpless. That's a horrible thing for a man as addicted to taking control as Scott Christopher Grey-Summers was.

So, that night, after dinner, while Jean was giving Rosie her bath, Scott slipped out of their suite and headed a few doors down to the room of one of the only people in the world that he was comfortable opening up to. Warren would probably be pretty harsh about all this, maybe even tease him about it, but he was their best friend, and he'd tell Scott the unpleasant truths of life that most people were afraid to tell him. Few people liked to talk to Scott, few people actively sought him out if it wasn't out of necessity, and Scott very rigidly kept to the same policy. For him to come to Warren's door with a problem like this... It was unusual to say the least.

He knocked on the door, quickly, and with a decisive rap rap, two knocks only, his usual knock. Sharp and brusque like the man himself.

Warren hadn’t really been expecting any one to visit him in his room tonight. It was one of the few evenings in the week when he was actually in the Mansion, and after dinner he had retreated upstairs. It was a little strange but rather encouraging how easily things got back to normal around the school, with it being only a week since half the school had wither grown up or grown... down, he supposed. Already it was a fading memory as ever day life took over.

A TV in the corner cast a flickering light over him and the room, playing something inane that he wasn’t really watching, instead he was trying to concentrate on reading a contract he was supposed to be signing off on fairly soon, absently tapping the end of his pen against his bottom lip. That couldn’t capture his attention either, and instead his gaze had drifted away, looking out the window at the darkening sky. He was wondering whether to go for a fly or not when there was a sharp rap at his door. “Coming...” Standing up, he crossed the room, and pulled open the door, to see Scott standing there. “Hey, Scott.” He said, a little surprised, though he really should have recognised the knock. Stepping back, he made room for his friend to step in if he wanted. “What’s up? Do you want to come in?

Scott stepped in, an apology already on his lips, "Are you busy?" he asked, nodded at the papers spread all over Warren's desk. The nonfamily rooms of the mansion were smaller obviously than the suites, a large bedroom, but no living room area, so he didn't take a seat, the only options being the desk chair or the bed. Neither were options that Scott would take without being invited, because that just wasn't the kind of guy he was, even after all these years. "I can go if you are..." he floundered.

Warren smiled slightly as Scott immediately tried to excuse his presence and then shook his head. “No, no, I’m not busy.” He rubbed a hand through his hair and gestured slightly towards the papers. “Just trying to get a bit of work done while I have some free time. Doesn’t happen too often these days.” Walking further into the room, he indicated for Scott to sit down at the desk chair, while he sat down on the edge of the bed. “Take a seat.” He didn’t say anything else as he waited for Scott to begin talking.

Scott sat down, the picture of non-relaxation, and muttered, "I don't want to burden you with all this. I just... there's just a lot of things that recent events have showed me I have no skill with, small talk apparently being one of them, and just a few days ago... being a kid again, reminded me that I used to be able to do them. I used to be... I don't know... fun, open minded... able to laugh and smile hesitation. It seems to be beyond me now. Normally, I don't particularly care, you know. Someone has to maintain control, but... but when it makes me unable to help the people I care for, I just don't know what to do.

Ever since ShadowX, Jean's had trouble coming to terms with what was done to us, what she did under the influence, and, you know me, I tried to make things better, but I seem to have made things worse..."

Warren listened carefully as Scott explained his issues, his own way of sitting an obvious contrast to Scott’s, opposites in so many ways, but the fact that Scott came to him was a testament to their friendship which had, for reasons he didn’t always understand, had lasted fifteen years. He cleared his throat and straightened a little. “Jean knows you better than any one Scott, I’m sure she understands that you were only trying to help. What did you say to her?” He asked, thinking he might need a little bit more information.

Scott ran his hand through his short hair, always cautious of his red glasses and said, "Do you think you're the same person that you were before you came here? Do you think that the Professor... might have..." He sighed and tapped his finger against his temple, "Might have moved things around, smoothed personality defects... made us what he needed us to be?"

Looking at Scott steadily for a long moment, Warren considered the question. He thought how much he had changed since he arrived at the Mansion, from the resentful, arrogant teenager he had been to what he was now. Even now, however, he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t even close, he had flaws, made mistakes. Experience, the responsibility of taking over his father’s business, the grief and guild of losing Candy, his parents, the Professor and Jon in the space of four years, seeing the darker side of himself had all tempered his flighty nature, but not to the point where he still didn’t shy away from commitment, didn’t get restless.

“I don’t.... know. I don’t think so. I hope not.” Warren began, slowly, contemplating what Scott had said even as he started answering. “I think that we grew up under extraordinary circumstances and that influenced how we turned out, it shaped us into who we are now. We’ve been through things most people can’t even imagine and that would.... effect us.” He paused, frowning slightly, wondering if it could possibly true. No, the Professor would never do that to them, would he? “You said that to Jean?” He questioned, to clarify.

Scott looked at Warren, somehow conveying his hangdog expression without be able to show it in his face or his eyes, "I might've... suggested something like that. It's not impossible to think about. We'd seen him shift people's minds and opinions out of necessity... he made Hank's parents forget he ever existed for their protection and his... I was trying to make her understand that sometimes there is no other choice, and I think instead I just made her doubt not just her morality but everything else as well. Her beliefs, her life... maybe even why she's with me instead of someone more... more like you, someone not such a pain in the ass to get along with."

“Wow. That’s quite an achievement.” Warren said, teasing just a little bit to briefly lighten the situation. He knew it wasn’t at all amusing, considering how Jean must be feeling at this point, but Scott really didn’t do things by halves. The might have been discussing Jean, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to pick up Scott’s own insecurities sneaking in as well, though he thought they were long gone by now. “Scott. Just to clarify, before I go on, Jean and I tried dating and it didn’t work. She’s not interested in someone like me. I truly don’t believe that the Professor had any hand in it.” He sighed and shook his head slightly. “But I guess this isn’t addressing the matter at hand. How have things been between you guys since then?”

"She doesn't want to talk about it," Scott sighed, "And, frankly, I'm scared to make it worse. I know all that about your relationship, and the fact that I'm still insecure about it isn't a big surprise, I'm guessing, but just because it didn't work out with you doesn't mean it is not really strange that she's with me. I don't doubt that I love her because I love her but that's really not the whole crux of the matter. The fact is the five of us who are left from the original class... we were totally different people, and when we came here, we had so much to sort through. I know he had to have done some manipulations to be granted guardianship of me, a single man, a single crippled man taking in a teenage orphan with his own unique issues...

I should have been turned over to the government or some lab somewhere. Your parents, who wanted to hide what you were, Jean's dad who was terrified and blamed her for her mother's death... Warren, the Professor manipulated people to bring us here. How do you know he didn't do the same to us? How can Jean know she's not subconsciously doing it to other people? When we were... ShadowX... everything we did seemed like the right decision, and it was impossible to think that it wasn't... but where do we draw the line between guidance and domination? I don't know how to convince her there is a difference, and that she'll know where that line is. People fear telepaths, even more so after what happened, people here fear her, and I think she fears herself."

“My parents thought the Professor was offering a cure...” Warren began, and then stopped, wondering if perhaps Charles had actually manipulated his parents. He had been so angry at them, and that resentment had added to many others over the years. Mentally he shook himself, this was about Scott and Jean, not his parents. In the face of Scott’s conviction that the Professor had messed with their minds he didn’t have a lot to say. Warren didn’t believe, didn’t want to believe it. Instead he wanted to defend the man who changed his life for the better, given him purpose and focus, and more importantly a family. If that involved a level of manipulation, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He felt cold inside and instead tried to focus on the matter at hand.

“Regardless of all that... “ he began firmly “... You shook Jean’s faith in herself and her life, but perhaps you also shook her belief that you have faith in her abilities. You made telepaths seem immoral creatures ungoverned by basic morals.” It was possibly a little harsh to lay it out like that, but that’s how it seemed from his end. Without talking to Jean he couldn’t be sure, and he wasn’t entirely convinced that Scott wasn’t projecting his own feelings about telepaths onto Jean but his friend wasn’t best at acknowledging his own emotions. “If I’m honest, I don’t think you can make that right by yourself, she needs to be able to separate the possible Professors actions from her own. She needs to be able to trust him and herself again.” Warren clasped his hands together lightly, looking down at his fingers as he went on. “Listen, you know I’m not the biggest fan of telepaths, one of the reasons Jean and I never worked, but I trust her, and I trust the Professor. Maybe you need to too, before you can help Jean.”

"I've always trusted her," Scott said, his expression finally changing, growing angry, or at least as angry as Scott allowed himself to be. "And, I always trusted the Professor. I don't see a problem with doing what has to be done for the right reasons, when it is done under controlled and moderated circumstances... I guess I don't consider it immoral if it is done for moral purposes." He put his fist to his mouth, tapping lightly in thought, "Is that maybe the problem? It's with me, not with her. I'm not reacting to everything that happened the way that I should, the way that she is..." He stood and began to pace the room, restlessly, "If this was an enemy, I could fight it, I could battle plan my way out of this situation and free us both, but I can't and since I don't know how to just shut up and comfort her..." He put his hand to his forehead and rubbed lightly at the blooming headache there. "I've done it again, haven't I? I spend my life so busy preparing for the worst, that I turn a little problem into a world shattering crisis.

Warren didn’t react to the anger in Scott’s tone, expecting it really. “You can’t fight everything Scott, there isn’t always a battle plan. Sometimes yes, you do have to just shut up and comfort someone. Perhaps somewhere subconsciously you see Jean as the “enemy you need to engage in battle, because she was the other half of ShadowX. You can’t fight yourself and you can’t fight ShadowX but you can fight her.”

He watched as Scott continued to pace, trying to rationalise everything. Warren had realised a long time ago that very little in the world was rational, and trying to control everything would only leave you out of synch with everything, so he had learned to adapt and change. Scott had never managed that, focusing on life with a single minded determination. Neither was right or wrong, but both had their pros and cons. Together they balanced each other.

“I don’t think the fall out from ShadowX could be considered little, but you focused on the wrong parts of it and blew those out of proportion. I think you’re also underestimating the effect being controlled under ShadowX had on people. You think the Professor’s manipulations were okay because they were for the right reasons? It follows that you maybe think the manipulations of ShadowX were acceptable because they were in defence of the dream and the school. If you can’t trust that every thought and emotion and memory you have are you’re own, then what do you have left? With you pointing out the Professor might have controlled us, Jean probably felt exactly the way the students feel about being controlled and she probably knew that too and realised the full impact of what ShadowX inflicted on everyone else.”

Scott stopped pacing when Warren started talking, looking away  from him, looking around the room as if seeing it for the first time instead of having memorized every nook and cranny in the past how many years... It was a hard thing to hear, and he didn't know how much of it he was ready to believe... but he knew it was what he needed Warren to say, why he needed him as much as he did. He stayed silent with the accusations and admonishments hanging for a long time in the air, before he finally said, "I'm just a soldier, Warren... I took orders until I was required to give them... Is there something wrong with me that knowing that, that knowing that I am fundamentally lacking in several aspects of social niceties, that I don't intend on changing? As much as I want to be cuddly comforting hubby to Jean, if I did that I wouldn't be the man she married. So, I don't know what to do here. I don't know how to make her feel better. I need orders.”

“You’re not just a soldier. I know you like perceive yourself as one and want everyone else to do the same, because it reduces the risk of getting emotionally involved in too many people but I’ve seen you with Jean, with Rosie, with Alex, with some of the students. You can’t afford to be just a soldier, just as I can’t afford to now be one on some level.” Warren took a breath, knowing that Scott needed this, to vent and be challenged but sometimes he felt at a loss.

“I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with the way you are and I’m fairly certain Jean’s not expecting you to be cuddly and comforting as you put it, I doubt she wants that. It’s just a case of knowing when to not preach and lecture. And if you get it wrong, and end up with your foot firmly in your mouth, then you just have to be patient, work through it, and over time it will fade away.” He gave a faint shrug, not really know what else to say now. He was hardly a relationship expert but he realised Scott had come to him for some kind of guidance “I thought I had all the time in world with Candy, to make amends for the ass I was sometimes but obviously I didn’t. So don’t spend too long dwelling on it and trying to find a way to control and fix things. Sometimes you just can’t, sometimes you just have to be there for her and hope that’s enough.” Warren gave a quick smile. “And maybe find a guy who has a better track record with relationships to talk to.”

Scott smirked, "Well, you're a big help." He sighed, and looked back at his friend, really feeling better, actually. Warren might not understand how much he had helped... or maybe he did. There was a reason they were friends, the two very different men that they were. War was the only one who dared tell Scott this, and he was the only one that Scott would accept it from. No matter how hard it was to say... After all, this was the  man who almost killed him to save him... "So, basically, just suck it up, go back to my room and make love to my wife and the next time she comes to me with a problem, keep my mouth shut and hold her until she doesn't need to be held anymore? That's what I should do, hmm?

“Pretty much. Just next time keep the making love part to yourself. Really, I love you guys but I don’t know need to know that.” Warren said with a grin. “If I’m wrong about everything though, don’t tell Jeannie I gave you the advice. She’ll hurt me.” He stood up from the corner of the bed and moved towards his desk again. “Now get out of here and go see your wife. I’m too busy and important to be playing Dr Phil.” He added, deadpan but obviously teasing.

Scott chuckled and said, "Yeah, you're also not bald enough... yet. Judging by that hairline of yours though, it won't be long. Maybe you should grow a little moustache and develop a healthy relationship with the muffin basket." He turned to go  and said, "Seriously though, War, thanks."

“Hey, don’t be jealous because my hair is nicer than yours.” Warren shot back, rolling his eyes, before smiling and becoming a little more serious as Scott thanked him. “Anytime, you know that.” He replied simply.
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Jean
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Telepathy, Telekinesis
JP between Scott and Jean



Scott snickered at Warren's retort. "Laugh it up, War, laugh it up." He gave half a wave and left his friend's room, heading back to his own. Jean should probably just be finishing bundling Rosie into her pajamas and into bed after her bath. The bathroom would be a mess and there would be a trail of tiny wet footprints across the carpet, but all of that was commonplace now. It used to grate on him, and make him wonder how so small a girl could cause so much chaos. He didn't mind it as much anymore. Maybe Warren was right. Maybe there was more to him than the shell of military general he hid behind. Entering the suite, he looked around and called out, softly, "Jean?"

“In here,” Jean replied in a voice just above normal conversation. With Rosie tucked away, although she knew from the faint mental whispers, that the little girl thinking about getting up and playing with her dolls in front of the night-light, Jean was lying on their bed, paperwork for the Community Center spread around her. “Anyone getting into mischief?” she asked, assuming that he’d taken the opportunity to prowl the mansion one last time before settling in for the night.

"All's quiet on the western front," Scott said, joining her in the room, and scooping the papers up and out of the way. "No more work tonight," he said, settling on the bed with her, "You know how much I love you, right? And, how much I trust you?"

For a moment, she was going to open her mouth to protest and instead gave him a little smirk. “Hmm, I think I recall something about that, but I try not to listen to gossip.” The mood between them, ever since their talk in the woods, had been slightly off, not walking on eggshells but like something had been the air. Even with that, she loved him and enjoyed him being around. She reached out and held his hand as he joined her.

Taking her offered hand, he pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm a pretty stupid man, sometimes," he told her, "And someone told me that I should learn when to shut up," Scott tilted his head down and kissed her neck, right at her jawline, "I just need to find other things to do with my mouth, I guess."

Tilting her head back, a pleased smiled played on her lips at the attention. “Hmm, this someone seems like a pretty smart someone,” she said, keeping it vague although the list of people it could be was a very short one. Her hand slipped around him and started caressing side. “But you were right about not living in the past or letting it spoil our future. Although… that doesn’t you have to stop what you’re doing to talk,” she said, giving a breathy chuckle now he got to her ear.

He smiled, his lips pressed against her warm skin and he said, "Well, how about this... we'll live in the here and now and talk only about how beautiful you are and how much I want you. Sound good?" Closing his eyes, he slipped off his glasses and replaced them with his sleep visor, the heavier and more secure device the one he favored when in bed... especially when they were not planning on sleeping.

Jean reached out with her mind and flicked the lock, the audible click filling the room. “I’ve said it before,” she said, her mind going back to the time when she seduced him in the hallway, and her fingers lightly gliding over his skin as her thoughts reached out and loosened his clothes, “you always come up with the best ideas.”

"I'm just a soldier, ma'am," Scott smiled, "Mouth shut, eyes front, and ready to follow orders." He reached out and turned off the light.
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