Unspoken: Fault Lines

Fault Lines
by jenn

Rating: PG

Summary: Jubilee talks to Hank.

Timeline: After "Feeling Cavalier"

Author Notes: I absolutely fell in love with "Feeling Cavalier". That was an absolutely gorgeous piece of work, chica. <grins> Jubilee disagreed with Hank, though. <g>

Date: October 7, 2001

Jubilee saw Hank standing outside of Miss Rogue's room, hand pressed to the door Only a couple of hours earlier, she'd seen Logan standing in that same place.

Of course, Logan, like Hank, hadn't opened the door, and personally, Jubilee thought that was a severe miscalculation on his part. Leaning against the corner, Jubilee wondered if, just maybe, she shouldn't have upped the bet. Logan was showing some unwelcome traces of something that might resemble guilt. Guilt, usually, did not contribute toward good sex. Guilt led to such things as watching him go outside and into the woods, perhaps to run down the aforementioned deer or two--in which case, he was seriously in the wrong area, but hey, there *were* rabbits.

Sighing, she picked at a loose thread on her coat. No, in retrospect, upping the bet *may* have been a really bad idea. Of course, the pot was close to a thousand now. Just a little late to be rethinking the options. Shrugging, she turned to leave.

"Jubilee!" Hank was coming toward her. Damn. "What are you doing here?"

Technically, Jubilee *did* live in this wing, though certainly not that close to Miss Rogue's new room. Hank was one of those rare souls that Jubilee had serious issues lying to, and not just because he was a great deal bigger than she was. Hank was as honest, as clear, as a glass of water. He was also not that great at catching lies, because it never occurred to him that anyone was less honorable than he was himself. Double whammy with that one. Jubilee sighed and cocked her head.

"Bobby told you about the bet, didn't he?"

Reason number two that Jubilee didn't like to lie to Hank--Hank never, ever lied to them. Ever. The blue face purpled just a little in a light flush, then he sighed.

"Yes, he did."

Jubilee nodded and jerked her head toward the stairs.

"Wanna get a snack?"

"When you tell me why you were watching Rogue's room."

Jubilee grinned up at him.

"Goes better with peanut butter, amigo. Come on. I'll explain everything."

* * *

Hank shook his head over his third peanut-butter sandwich and Jubilee leaned back into her chair, playing with her crust.

"This is not--"

"Nice?"

"Something of that sort." He chewed absently before reaching for his glass of milk. Jubilee leaned over to fish a cookie from the plate between them. "Jubilee, what possessed you to place wagers on your teachers?"

"A sad lack of other things to do." Pulling a knee to her chest, Jubilee took a bite of her cookie, thinking about how she could maneuver Logan back into the Mansion. This was difficult enough--the little accident of Miss Rogue's had definitely set things back. Miss Rogue was going to be stubborn now, even more than she'd been before. "You didn't see when Mr. Summers met Miss Grey. It was--" Jubilee stopped, frowning. "You don't read romance novels, do you?"

A smile curled up the corner of Hank's mouth.

"I have indulged in light recreational reading, Jubilee."

"Okay, so you know how they always have that love at first sight crap?" Hank nodded seriously and Jubilee sent a special thanks to whatever power that was keeping Hank from laughing at her. "I never believed it--but Mr. Summers and Miss Grey, it was, like, *just* like that. Every time they looked at each other, you could feel it."

"And for some reason, this person Logan sprang to mind as an appropriate consolation prize for Rogue?"

Ooh. Jubilee straightened, hearing something Not Good in Hank's voice.

"You don't like him. Notice my sheer lack of surprise here." Jubilee shook her head. She wondered if Logan was deliberately setting out to make everyone dislike him. No one could possibly do that accidentally.

"First impressions were not--the best possible," Hank answered reluctantly, as he set aside the remaining crust and gazed at the cookies.

"Did he do that 'I'm invincible and also mean, so get outta here before I do bad stuff' thing?"

Jubilee watched in amusement as Hank strangled a laugh, and reached for another cookie. Sometimes, Hank had a weird sense of humor. One of her favorite things about him.

"I think it was more his thoughtlessness, Jubilee."

"Oh." Jubilee sat back in the chair, twirling the cookie around. "You mean letting Miss Rogue touch him."

Hank nodded slowly and the clear brown eyes met hers.

"It was thoughtless and perhaps even selfish."

Jubilee nodded.

"Yeah, I suppose. Must have been nice though." Jubilee saw Hank's expression and smiled, shrugging a little, shifting in her chair. "I wonder if anyone else in the world can really honestly say that someone loved them enough to die to touch them."

Hank froze, cookie suspended in one hand.

"It's not love, Jubilee."

"Oh?" Jubilee looked reflectively at her cookie, setting it down. "What's love then?"

Hank tilted his head, and Jubilee recognized the look. She'd seen it on Miss Rogue's face during English class the day after Mr. Summers had proposed and they'd been studying the Romantic poets.

"It's many things. I don't understand it myself sometimes." A thoughtful look crossed his face, and Jubilee remembered that once, Hank had been in love too. Very much so, though he'd never discussed it with her or anyone else, as far as she knew. Only whispers of the woman he'd been dating, the quiet speculation in their dorm rooms--then nothing. It was probably the only thing at the school that was a true mystery to everyone, and more than once, Jubilee had wanted to ask. But the expression on Hank's face forbore comment. "It's more that merely lust or desire--it's sacrifice. It's a willingness to think of your partner's needs before your own. It's putting someone else above yourself in all things."

Jubilee was suddenly very, very glad she hadn't asked. There was something coloring Hank's voice that was something very like pain.

"So Logan doesn't love Miss Rogue."

Hank blinked, flipping back into the here and now, and the brown eyes met hers, the pained look fading.

"Attraction, yes. Perhaps caring. But if he can't understand Rogue's own limits and respect them--"

"You mean, the touching thing."

Hank nodded.

"It hurts her. He should have thought before he acted."

"Yeah." Jubilee mulled that. "So should she, I guess."

Hank frowned.

"It's not Rogue's fault, Jubilee."

"But if she wanted it--"

"Logan should have known better. If he knew her even a little--if he understood how very difficult it is for her, to be denied human contact--then he never would have put her in that position." Hank shook his head. "I will never understand--"

Jubilee sighed softly.

"Yeah. It's definitely all his fault. You're right." Jubilee tilted her head a little, giving Hank a long look. "You know, I went into the Danger Room the other day while it was running." She mulled her cookie. "No safeties were on and Logan was cutting a mean swathe through the animatronics. Very cool to watch."

Hank dropped the cookie in shock. Hank was so rarely in shock that Jubilee had to take a moment to enjoy it.

"Jubilee! What has Scott told you--you could be badly injured--"

"It wasn't my fault." As the brown eyes widened in disbelief, Jubilee shrugged. "Logan should have known I'd pick the lock. Right?"

Ooh, a Look. Adults looked at her like that a lot.

"Jubilee, those are two different things."

"I know. What I did was on purpose, so there's a fault there. Accidents, you know, aren't anyone's fault." Tilting her head, Jubilee took in Hank's steady gaze. "I like Logan. He's grouchy and he's weird, and really, really moody. But he likes fried chicken and he tried to die for Miss Rogue before he even knew her very well, and he didn't yell at me too much when I barged in on his Danger Room session and didn't bitch to Mr. Summers about it." With a little smile, she grabbed a handful of cookies from the plate. "He felt bad that he brought Jean here, you know, and messed up Mr. Summers and Miss Rogue's engagement. He was outside Miss Rogue's door earlier looking all guilty; I'll bet he thinks it was all his fault that the accident happened in the lake." Jubilee shook her head, tucking the cookies into her pocket and standing up. "And if he feels bad enough, then he'll leave, and we'll never have to worry about another accident happening, because Miss Rogue will never want to go swimming again. I'll see you later."

Hank was looking at her as if she'd grown horns. She got that look a lot from adults.

"Where are you going?" he asked, as she pushed open the door.

"Take him some cookies and apologize for barging in during his Danger Room session. If I'd gotten hurt, he would have blamed himself too, and I think maybe he needs to know that it wouldn't have been his fault."

~*~

Just a Litte Patience... Gone by Shana

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Disclaimer: All X-Men characters belong to Marvel and Fox; this piece of fan-written fiction intends no infringement on any copyrights.