Spider-X: A Spider-Man Story

Chapter 19: The Rogue

Jean is sitting on one of the infirmary beds, her books and notebooks spread out before her. She startles when Peter knocks on the doorframe.

"Hey," she says neutrally.

"Hey," Peter replies. "How are you feeling?"

"A lot better than last night. Thank you, by the way."

Peter shrugs, "it was nothing."

"I'm going to kill Duncan." Jean stares angrily at her notes. "Like actually kill him."

Peter can't stop himself from grinning. "That's what Scott and I said."

"I just can't stop thinking about it, you know? What was he trying to do?" She squeezes her pencil so tightly her knuckles turn white. "Spiking my drink like that? He has no idea how much I could have hurt him with my powers wigging out like that!"

"Jean," Peter moves to sit on the end of the bed, making sure to keep a healthy distance away from her, "you shouldn't worry what you could have done to him. He's the one that spiked your drink."

"Yeah, I know," Jean looks away, "I don't like to think about that either." She sighs and pulls her legs up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "He's done this to other girls, hasn't he?" She asks quietly.

"Probably," Peter answers just as quietly.

"God, I'm such an idiot!" One of Jean's notebooks flies off the bed and into the wall. "I knew he was an asshole, but he was always so sweet to me, and I thought maybe I could get him to lay off of everyone else, y'know? I thought if he was nice to me he could be nice to others. I never thought he'd..."

Peter didn't know what to say so he just let her talk through her thoughts.

Jean laughs, like she just realized she said all that out loud. "Sorry," she says, "I've had a lot of voices in my head."

Peter scoots a little closer to her, "how many?"

"Everyone at the party," Jean answers nonchalantly, "all of them at the same time. Everyone in the cars and houses we drove past on the way home. Everyone in the manor."

"That's...intense," Peter settles on. He can't imagine having a barrage of that many voices screaming at him. His enhanced senses are almost too much sometimes and his thoughts are a whirlwind most of the time.

"I'm used to it, but last night, it just all slipped." Jean shrugs, "I'm okay now though."

"Good. Well, um, I just wanted to check in, and, yeah, so..." he motioned towards the door and got off the end of her bed. "See you later?" When Jean nods he starts walking out of the infirmary. He's almost out when Jean's voice stops him.

"What are you?"

It's so low it's barely a whisper, but it stops him in his tracks. There it is, the worry that had nagged Peter all night, aside from Jean's safety and well being. The shooting pains in his skull and flashes of memories, accompanied by the lasting headache all pointed toward Jean being in his head as he had gotten her home. But he hadn't been sure how much she remembered, if anything.

"What are you?" Jean asks again, louder.

Peter turns around, "I don't know what you-"

"I was in your head, Peter. I saw... things that didn't make any sense. People, and battles, and you were doing things I've never seen a regular mutant able to. So either you have more powers than anyone else I've ever met, and you're just naturally great at using them, or you've been lying about who–or what–you are."

"Would you have believed me?" Peter asks. "Would anyone?"

Before Jean could answer, Peter's alarm goes off, making them both jump. Peter quickly turns it off and looks to Jean, waiting to see what she'll do. She looks away for a minute, then back with a small smile. "Wolverine's forest training session?"